Table of Contents

Thoughts on 2 Corinthians

The Two Rich Men

Luke 18, 19.

The Two Tribes and a Half

Three Things

Absalom

2 Samuel 11: 12.

2 Samuel 13, 14.

2 Samuel 15 - 18.

2 Samuel 19 - 23.

2 Samuel.

Afflictions and Consolations

Babylon

Rev. 17, 18.

Belshazzar's Feast in its Application to the Great Exhibition

A Letter to a Bereaved Brother

The Birth of Jesus

J. G. B.

The Bride of the Lamb

Joshua 3.

J. G. B.

The Knowledge of Our Present Standing.

J. G. B.

Deuteronomy 26 - 34.

J. G. B.

The Heavenly Calling Foreshown

God's Call out of the Earth

GOD'S CLAIM OF THE EARTH.

A Meditation on Canticles

The Parable of the Cedar and the Two Eagles

Ezekiel 17.

Christ Our Prophet

The Church at Thessalonica

The Claims of God's Sovereignty and Holiness

Numbers 1 - 4.

Jesus Christ come in flesh

The Nearness of the Glory

Bethany.

Boldness in the Day of Judgment.

1 John 4: 7.

Jacob.

Notices of Coming Glories.

Jeremiah and the Times.

The Confederacies of Men and the Judgments of God

Confusion and Order

Different Conversions

Extracts from Correspondence

No Fellowship with Dishonour to Christ

Jehovah, Jesus,

Jehovah, Jesus, — Son of David and Son of God.

Son of David; Son of God.

Appendix.

The Translation of Elijah

2 Kings 1, 2.

Brief Notes on the Epistle to the Ephesians

Ephesians 1.

Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 3.

Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 5.

Ephesians 6.

Exodus

On Christian Experience

CBA4441

An Extract

Extract from a Letter

A Fair Show in the Flesh

Galatians 6: 12.

Every Family in Heaven and on Earth

Eph. 3: 15

The Father

John 14 - 17.

Fragment of Letter

Fragment

An Extract.

1 Thess. 5: 18.

J. G. B.

"By faith of the Son of God."

Gal. 2: 20.

A Brief Word on the Epistle to the Galatians

The Garden of Eden

Genesis 2.

The Good Confession before Pontius Pilate

John 18: 33-37, 1 Timothy 6: 12-14.

John 18: 33-37.

The Glory in the Cloud

The Glory of God

Rom. 3: 23.

God Entering His Temples

God Manifest in the Flesh

Grace

Grace and Glory

Preface.

Grace and Glory.

2 Chr. 9: 1-12.

Hagar

Genesis 16 - 25.

The Heir of All Things

Hebrews 1: 2.

Herod and John

The Person and Deity of the Holy Ghost

Divine Intimacy

Isaiah 52: 13-53

Isaiah 66

An Introduction to Isaiah

SUBJECTS.

NOTES.

CONCLUSION.

Israel and Jerusalem in the Times of Refreshing

Jacob in Egypt

The Lord Jesus in John 11, 12

The Lord Jesus in John 1: 43

John, the Penman of the Apocalypse

Thoughts on John

Jonah

Joseph

Gen. 37 - 47.

Genesis 37

Genesis 38

Genesis 39 - 41

Genesis 42 - 44

Genesis 45 - 47

King Saul

1 Samuel 8 - 10.

1 Samuel 11 - 15.

1 Samuel 16, 17.

1 Samuel 8 - 10.

1 Samuel 28 - 31.

The Sons of Korah

Latter Times and Last Days

A Letter

A Letter

Extracts from letters

Extracts from letters.

A Letter

A Letter — Jeremiah.

Jeremiah.

The Link between Heaven and Earth

Isaiah 6.

The Lord's Supper

The Lord's Supper:

A Memorial of Christ.

Thoughts on the Lord's Supper

The Manner of the Love of Jesus

Matt. 9; Mark 2; Luke 5.

Man

Mary and Martha

Matthew 21, 22, 23

Matthew 24, 25

Thoughts on Matthew 24, 25

A Meditation

Luke 6: 22, 23.

Ministry

Millennial Glory

Mark 9: 15.

Moses's Loss of Canaan

Moses's Heavenly Glory

The Mount of God

Exodus 1 - 13.

Exodus 19 - 40.

Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel 1 - 4.

A Letter on Neutrality as to Christ,

or Bethesda.

New Creation

_____________

__________

_____________

_____________

_________

____________

______________

The New Creation

Nothing But Christ

Patriarchal Faith

Peter

Luke 5: 1-11; John 21: 1-14.

The Pilgrim Fathers

Hebrews 11: 13-16.

"Christ pleased Not Himself."

The Potter's Broken Vessel

Jeremiah 18, 19.

The Redemption of the Purchased Possession

Eph. 1: 14.

Rahab

Interesting Reminiscences

Early History of "Brethren."

Christ a Reprover

Proverbs 25: 12.

Restoration and Communion

Musings on the Apocalypse

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

2 Timothy 2: 15.

_____________

BRIEF REMARKS ON THE PRECEDING PAPER.*

Thoughts on Romans 6 - 8

Ruth

The Schools of the Prophets

Separation and Worship

The Queen of Sheba

The Queen of Sheba and the Eunuch

1 Kings 10; 2 Chr. 9; Acts 8.

Salvation and Conflict

Strangership and Citizenship

The All-Sufficiency of Grace

Galatians 4: 19-31.

The Temple of God and Its Worship

"That Fox."

Luke 13: 32.

The Threshing Floor of Ornan the Jebusite

1 Chronicles 21.

The Trial of Jealousy

Numbers 5.

Waiting for the Son from Heaven

1 Thessalonians 1: 10.

Walk in the Spirit

Gal. 5: 16.

The Watcher and the Holy One

Daniel 4.

JGB - Booklets and Articles

J. G. Bellett

This document may be found online at www.stempublishing.com

You are welcome to freely access and use this material for personal study or sending to other Bible students, compiling extracts for notes etc, but please do not republish without permission.

With the prayerful desire that the Lord Jesus Christ will use this God-given ministry in this form for His glory and the blessing of many in these last days before His coming. © Les Hodgett (contact@stempublishing.com) (2011)

Thoughts on 2 Corinthians

Thoughts on 2 Corinthians.

from Miscellaneous Papers

J. G. Bellett.

(R. L. Allan)

In the midst of the fears and warnings of the Spirit concerning the churches, we may observe that He is alarmed for them on several and different grounds, as expressed in different epistles and by different apostles.

1. He specially warns them respecting Judaizing, i.e., religiousness, or the observance of rites and ordinances. This fear is expressed in the letters to Galatia, Colosse, and Philippi.

2. He fears for them respecting the working of an infidel mind, the mind which, corrupted by reasoning, denies mysteries. This is seen in 1 John 4: 1; 2 Peter 3: 3, 4.

3. He fears for them also on the ground of abusing grace, or licentiousness, the practical denial of godliness while boasting in grace and liberty. This is seen in 2 Peter 2 and in Jude.

4. He fears also worldliness.

It is this last feature of fear filling the mind of the Spirit about the saints or churches, and shaping apostolic ministry, which has just struck me in connection with 2 Corinthians.

This is a distinct character of fear. It is not an apprehension of religiousness, or infidelity, or licentiousness corrupting the churches; it is formally distinct from each of these. The Grecian style may have exposed the Corinthians specially to a simple worldly attraction, to the pretensions of a man of refinement and station and independence, — who had much in the flesh; that is, from nature and from circumstances, that was attractive and showy. This was worldliness.

The fear about Corinth was not respecting religious or Judaizing influence. Neither was it (at least in the second epistle) from the working of an infidel mind, or from the sports of an unclean and lustful nature, but "the god of this world " was feared by the apostle.

A certain man appears to have gained attention, who had much more both from nature and from circumstances than the apostle; and the saints at Corinth were moved by this. He was, I believe, as modern language speaks, a gentleman. He had a fine person and an independent fortune. He had many advantages of that kind; and the Corinthians were under that evil influence — to some extent they had been beguiled. They were looking on things after the outward appearance. They were suffering a man vaunting of himself, and lording it over them, and taking occasion by some low and worldly advantages he possessed from nature and from circumstances to be somebody.

Such a bad condition the apostle has to contend with. Affection and confidence toward himself had been withdrawn in measure, because he had no such advantages to boast. And surely he was fully purposed not to affect such things at all. If is true, he would be independent as well as the other, but it should arise from his working with his own hand, not from advantages of fortune, as we say. And though he had certain things of which he might boast in the flesh, he would glory rather in his infirmities. He would be "weak in Christ," i.e., in fellowship with Him who was "crucified in weakness," that all his strength might be spiritual, or resurrection-strength.

The natural advantages which this man had he used, taking to himself the importance and value which attach to such things in the world. And some of the saints were corrupted. But against such association he protests in 2 Cor. 6, "Be ye not unequally yoked," he says. And the manner of this man he exposes more fully, setting big own way forth as contrary to it, in 2 Cor. 10 - 12.

And in doing this, in offering himself as a practical witness of a way different from this man of the world, we may notice these particulars:

1. The apostle refuses to know himself, or to be known by the saints, save according to his measure in the Spirit, and not as he was by nature or in the flesh.

2. He glories only in either his infirmities or in such dignities as separated him from all worldly estimation, as his, rapture into paradise; for the world would not understand such honour.

Such an one does the apostle present himself in contradiction of the man who gloried in the flesh. We may know how hard it is to follow him in such a path, in a willingness to be weak — that we may be strong; in his decision to know Christ in the weakness of His cross, so that whatever strength he knew might be as of resurrection. (2 Cor. 13: 4)

I dare say some were tempted to undervalue the office or apostleship of Paul, because he had not the advantage in the flesh of other apostles. He had not companied with the Lord in the days of His flesh; and in his own flesh he had a thorn. This may further have exposed him to observation by those who judged after the flesh. But the apostle was willing that his ministry or office should remain unrecommended by anything the world could appreciate. He valued only that power of God, that power in the Spirit which accompanied his ministry, and which was fitted to tell on hearts and consciences, power which linked him with the Lord in life or resurrection.*

*These features in Paul's ministry show how the flesh is now excluded, and all its advantages, from the divine idea of ministry.

Every symptom of weakness in man's account gathered round the blessed Lord in the day of His crucifixion: desertion and denial by those who should have stood with Him, the enmity of man in every form in which it could have expressed itself, the forsaking of God, all the malice and purpose of Satan. This was the full exhibition of all that was weak, miserable, and despised in the world's account. None were for Jesus, all was against Him, and even nature seemed to join. But Paul was willing that his ministry should be in moral sympathy with His.

Generally, as to this epistle, I would say, it might distribute itself as follows:

2 Cor. 1 - 2: 13. In this portion the apostle speaks of his trials in the gospel, and answers Objections made to him because of his not having visited Corinth a second time.

2 Cor. 2: 14 - 7: 4. This is a parenthesis. The apostle presents his ministry in several characteristics of it.

2 Cor. 7: 5-16. Here the apostle resumes and pursues the point from which he had departed at chapter 2: 13. He expresses his joy in the Corinthians, and in the grace that was in them.

2 Cor. 8, 9. This is quite incidental.

2 Cor. 10 - 13. The great and leading purpose of the epistle occupies these chapters. The apostle contemplates the way of a certain injurious teacher who had acquired influence at Corinth, and he intimates the fruit of that influence; largely, also, exhibiting his own way as a teacher in contradiction of him who was then corrupting the saints.

This may be read as a general analysis of the epistle, I believe.

I might observe, that the apostle's commendation of the Corinthians in chapter 7, previous to his large and fervent rebuke of them in chapters 10 - 13, may remind us of the way of the Spirit in His addresses to the seven churches in the Revelation; for in each of them there is a beginning with a commendation, and then (when called for) an enlarging in the way of rebuke and condemnation.

The Two Rich Men

The Two Rich Men.

Luke 18, 19.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 9 p. 327.

How beautifully the incidents recorded in the Evangelists exhibit the workings of nature and of grace. They are short and familiar, but full of matter for the meditation of our hearts that we may be either warned or comforted.

Uneasiness of conscience was goading the rich young ruler of Luke 18 to seek relief wherever it might be found. He loved the world and could not give it up; and yet he had religious apprehensions of a day of judgment, and owned the fact that there was a kingdom of God still to come. This is a common case. A calculating worldly heart with serious religious sentiments, all together working uneasiness in the soul. He was a sample of the thorny ground hearer. He would fain have both worlds, and yet was not so sure that he had the future world. And how could be? How could such a double-minded man be stable? How could a body, the eye of which was thus evil, be full of light? His uneasiness was goading him hither and thither, and in his waverings he seeks Jesus.

Can anything be more natural? He was not a reckless man of pleasure, but a religious calculating man of the world, who could deliberately weigh his own interests in time and eternity, and make them supreme in all his reckonings.

He was, with all this, of course nothing but an old bottle. The new wine is therefore spilt; The doctrine of Christ is lost upon him. He goes away a lover of the world as he had come, for the love of money keeps him apart from Jesus and thus outside the kingdom of God.

The Lord draws the simplest moral from this incident. "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God." The disciples however are amazed at this and say, "Who then can be saved?" And Jesus answers, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." These last words are much to be noted.

It is the way of the Spirit in Luke to group together matters for moral instruction, making that much rather his end than mere accuracy of historic time and place. After a short interval from the time of the case of the rich ruler, according to this his usual method, as I have said, Luke gives us the case of the rich publican, Zaccheus of Jericho,

They were both rich. This is a common characteristic. And up to this moment they may have had much more in common; but from this out, as far as we learn of them, they are separated for ever.

Solemn thought! but a thought suggested by every day's experience.

Zaccheus is not under the goading of a natural conscience. Nothing of this appears in his present movement. His path was under the drawings of the Father, for he seeks Jesus. (John 6.) It was the secret effectual drawing and teaching of the Father, and not the goad of an uneasy conscience, that was determining his present path. This was so, as we have said, because it lay toward Jesus; as He says Himself, "every one that hath heard and hath learnt of the Father cometh unto me." And that path really leading to Jesus as really led away from the world. For Zaccheus was now travelling a road which nature and the spirit of the world would never have taken. He forgets himself on this journey. He was no longer the rich publican of Jericho. The young ruler, on the contrary, had never forgotten his riches. But wealthy and important as Zaccheus was, all that is now forgotten, and through the crowd he passes, and up the tree he makes his way, careless of every cost if he may but see the Lord.

Very beautiful this. Here is an incident, as I said, exhibiting the working of grace: so the former had done the working of nature.

And the end of these workings is as different as the path itself. He lays his wealth at the feet of the Lord, while the ruler had gone away, full-handed as he came.*

*It was the exercise of soul in this young man, I believe, which made the Lord love him. (Mark 10: 21.) [I question this, Ed.] For He hoped it was genuine and would end in life and fruitfulness. (See 1 Cor. 13: 7.) But this shows how the Lord values the exercises of the soul.

For Zaccheus was "a new bottle." He keeps the new wine. Both are preserved. The wine is not spilt, the bottle is not burst. The drawing of the Father had led the soul, and the doctrine of the Son fills it.

Here was a living witness of what the Lord had said, "the things which are impossible with man are possible with God." For here was a rich man entering the kingdom, because he was not under the mere impulse of the conscience — that could never have done it — but under the conduct of God Himself; the teachings and drawings of the Father.

What a volume of holy instruction opens to us here!

And I doubt not that the case of these two rich men suggests some principal features in the parable that follows, "the nobleman that goes into the far country." The parable itself is suggested by another circumstance, as we learn (Luke 19), but some of the features of it arise hence, as I have said.

For in the unprofitable servant we see a picture of the young ruler, and in the other servants we see Zaccheus. The moral difference between them is this: the unprofitable servant religiously owns the seriousness of a day of judgment and of reckoning, and is careful for his own sake, to provide, as he judges, against it. He lays up his Lord's pound in a napkin, dreading the account he may hereafter have to make of it. But this is all. He has no heart for Christ or His service at all — but having saved himself, as he hoped, against the results of a day of reckoning, he goes forth and spends his activities on himself, or for his own interests. And such an one was the young ruler — he feared judgment, but had no heart for Christ, serving himself in the world.

The other servants had no calculations about judgment at all, but they thought about their Lord and His kingdom. It was their Lord who gave impulse to their activities. They set His service before them when they went forth to do business, they took His talent with them, and not their own. That is, they traded in the world for Him and not for themselves. Altogether the opposite of the unprofitable servant this was. The Lord's talent was not left at home, but carried abroad. Whatever was done by these servants was done for Christ, and not for themselves, whether it was more or less. And such an one was Zaccheus. He looked on his goods and with full purpose of heart used them for his Lord, either by restitution or by alms-deeds serving His glory in the world.

The Two Tribes and a Half

The Two Tribes and a Half.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 18, 1891, p. 59.

The history of the two tribes and a half has its own instruction for us, and illustrates a peculiar character of mind and walk among the saints of God. They do not stand exactly with Lot of the days of Abraham, though in some respects they remind us of him.

It is wonderful what a variety of mind, character, and of Christian experience, the soul finds before itself in the histories of Scripture. The soul reads itself there very fully; the workings of nature not only in man, but in the renewed man, its conflicts and its strength, giving us to see so much that we know in ourselves; and at times the lights and shades, as well as the distinctive features, are to be traced.

This strikes one here. The two tribes and a half are not Lot, but there is that in them which tells us of him. Like him, their own distinct independent history begins with their seeing the well-watered plains — the plains good for their cattle on the wilderness side of the Jordan. They think of their cattle rather than of the call of God, and the pilgrimage of their brethren. Had their hearts been full of Christ, they would not have seen anything till they had crossed the river. Abraham, their father, had not remained on that side the river; nor did their expectation, when called out from Egypt, stop short of the other side. Neither had Moses said anything to them about these plains in the land of Gilead. But they had cattle, and those plains were suitable to their cattle, and they sue for an inheritance ere they reach the land, which had been their expectation when they set out. This was all. They had no thought whatever of revolting, of sacrificing the portion of true Israelites; but their cattle drew their eyes to the goodly plains of Gilead, and they were for possessing them, though they would do so as Israelites.

How natural! how common! In moral power they came short of the call of God, though they held to the hope of that calling, and claimed fellowship only with those who were the objects of it. They were not in power a risen people, though in faith one with such. They were careful to declare and hold their alliance with the tribes who were to pass the Jordan, though they were led to remain on the wilderness side of it themselves. I do not regard them like Lot, a people of mixed principles, who had deliberately formed their lives by something inconsistent with the call of God; but rather as a generation who, owning that call, and prizing it, and refusing the thought of having any other, are not found in the full moral power of it.

Again I say, How common! This is a large generation. We know ourselves too well to ask, Is there such a people?

Moses at once is made uneasy by this movement on the part of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. He expresses this uneasiness with much force. He tells them that they bring to his remembrance the conduct of the spies, whom he had sent out years before from Kadesh-barnea, and whose way had discouraged their brethren, and occasioned the forty years' pilgrimage in the wilderness. There was something so unlike the call of Israel from Egypt in the hope of Canaan, in all this suggestion on the part of these tribes, that Moses at once thus resents it. And it is bad when this is produced in the soul of a Moses; when the first instinctive feelings and thoughts of a saint, walking in the power of the resurrection of Christ, are alarmed and wounded by what is seen in a brother; but yet how common! Many a Moses nowadays is called in spirit to challenge what offends, as being out of company with the calling of the saints; for many a thing gets its sanction, or its excuse, from the heart of a saint, that cannot stand before the judgment of faith.

Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh have to explain themselves, and to give fresh pledges to Moses that they by no means separate themselves from the fellowship and interests of their brethren. And they do this with zeal, and with integrity too. In this they are not with Lot. Lot's conduct separated him for the rest of the journey from Abraham. But not so these tribes. With zeal they assert their purpose to be still with their brethren. Nay, they would by no means have taken the eastern Gilead, had this produced a forfeiture of their identity with those who were to be on the western Canaan. They are ready to give pledges too, that they will be foremost in the actions which still remain, on behalf of their brethren's inheritance. By no means do they contemplate anything like loss of fellowship with them. In this they are above Lot; but still they have stopped short of Canaan. They are not in the full power of the Canaan calling, not in the thoughts of the man of God, a dead and risen people; for they are pausing, ere their promised inheritance be reached, for the sake of their cattle in the wilderness.

Moses, however, does not let them go, as Abraham let Lot go; they are not to be treated in that way. Neither does the judgment of God light on them, as on the unbelieving spies who bring up an evil report of the land. They do not belong to such generations, though their way may savour of such. Moses cannot lose sight of them because they purpose to feed their cattle in the plains of Gilead, while they thus with zeal assert their purposed fellowship with their brethren. They are his, and he is theirs still, I may say, and they hold on together, unlike Lot and Abraham, who never met after Lot became a citizen with the people of the land — practically forgetful, so far, of the call of God.

This is so; but still Moses has to eye them, and remember them, and keep his thoughts somewhat anxiously and uneasily occupied about them; and this is not the best witness for a saint. Happy when the Holy Ghost can leave us and our state alone, to lead us still onwards, and feed us still in the knowledge and with the things of Jesus!

Lot and Abraham never met after the way of the world had drawn Lot into it. Jonathan and David met now and again, and their affection, true and warm, there is communion between them. Obadiah and Elijah met only once, and it is but a poor meeting, reserve marking the way of Elijah and effort that of Obadiah; for they were not kindred spirits, the leathern girdle of the prophet but ill assorting with the livery of Ahab. But the two tribes and a half are above these. They are still the companions of their brethren, and will not think of anything else; and Moses admits their title without reserve. Their desire to have their portion in Gilead makes no difference as to this. But still, they do not go through and through, they do not measure the whole of the wilderness, but they linger, and the thought of their cattle being suited in the fields of Gilead attracts them, and there they find an object, though they still accompany the camp.

What shades of difference there are in these different illustrations! What different classes of the people of God! yea, and what differences in the same class do we meet here! Lot and Jonathan and Obadiah are of one class, men of mixed principles, as the expression is, men whose lives are formed by such every-day habits as cannot combine with the pilgrim-character, or the suffering, witnessing-character, to which the call of God leads. Sodom was Lot's place, Saul's court was Jonathan's, and the palace of Ahab, king of Israel, at Jezreel was Obadiah's, while Abraham dwelt in a tent, David in a den or cave of the earth, and Elijah with the provisions of the Lord at Cherith or Sarepta. And yet Jonathan was not either Lot or Obadiah personally, though we have to set them all in one class. Neither was Obadiah Lot exactly. And so between them as a class, and such dead and risen men as Moses and Joshua, we have to bring in the Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh — a generation who will by no means admit the thought of their separating themselves from full companionship with the call of God, but who, nevertheless, exhibit in several actions that which is not according to the full measure of that call. And this is indeed a common case, nay, this is the common case, among the saints. One knows it oneself. We own the call, we witness it, even speak of Canaan, of death and resurrection, of hopes and inheritance beyond the river; but nature, and present sense, and present desires, the bleating of the flocks, the lowing of the oxen, as they feed on the plains of Gilead lead to much which makes the more single eye of a Moses, and the more fixed and simple purpose of a Caleb or of a Joshua, to wonder and enquire. (See Num. 32.)

Joshua, who has the spirit of Moses, has them in some anxious and uneasy remembrance like Moses, and he addresses a word of special admonition to them when he takes the conduct of affairs under the Lord and for Israel. For they are still — being the tribes on the wilderness side of Jordan — the occasion of this fear and uneasiness to the more simple and devoted mind of a full-hearted and single-eyed servant of Christ. (See Joshua 1.)

There remains, however, another sight of them still in the progress of the history, and one which has its very striking moral features. I mean in Joshua 22. The ark had gone over. The feet of the priests bearing it had divided the waters of Jordan, and the ark had gone over, conducting and shielding the Israel of God. And it is true that our tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had gone over with them. But the ark and Israel had remained there; that's the difference. The two tribes and a half return, but the ark remains. The place that becomes a ransomed people, a dead and risen people, is left, and they return to settle where Israel had but wandered.

Joshua, like Moses, instinctively feels all this, and warns and exhorts them on their departure; and as soon as they reach the place they had chosen, they begin to feel it also. They are not fully at ease; and there is something specially significant in that. They raise an altar. The heart of an Israelite in the land of Gilead would just do the same at this day. They are uneasy. Jehoshaphat was uneasy when he found himself in the court of Ahab, and asked for a prophet of the Lord. The renewed mind speaks that language in a foreign land. They raise the altar and call it "Ed," as a witness, a witness that Israel's God was their God. But why all this? Had they remained in Canaan, where the ark and tabernacle of God were, they would not have needed this. But they were not there. Shiloh was not in view, nor could their souls carry the sense of it, that Shiloh was their common centre with all their brethren. They had to give themselves some artificial help, to give their souls a crutch, if I may so speak, to aid the confidence and joy of their hearts, that as Israelites they had fellowship and common interests and calling with their brethren.

All this is very full of meaning, and is constantly experienced to this day. Some witness of our belonging to the Israel of God is needed, and craved by the soul, when we get into a position in the earth which the call of Israel does not fully warrant. The countenance of others, the restless examination of our own state — reasonings with ourselves — remembrances, it may be, of better days with the soul — something that is as artificial of our own device as the altar of "Ed," and which would have been as unneeded too as that, had the soul been more simple and faithful.

All this is still known, and all this is figured here: it is the writing on this pillar on the eastern side of Jordan. And a wonderful pillar it thus is. Lot's wife, the pillar of salt, has a writing upon it which the divine Master Himself has made for us, and, I doubt not, so has this pillar of "Ed," which the Holy Ghost would fain teach us to read, that we may be warned to know what uneasiness and doubt accompany the soul that has retreated to find a settlement there, where the Church is, and has been, a stranger. This altar witnessed both for and against these Israelites. It was just what Jehoshaphat's uneasiness was when he found himself with Ahab and the prophets of Baal. It is just what a saint's uneasiness here is when he finds himself involved in a world that he ought to have left. For all this bespeaks the saintly or renewed mind; but in such exercises and experiences, as want of simplicity and the grace of God has caused it.

Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh are challenged a second time — by Joshua now, as by Moses before — because of their pillar now, because of their seeking the plains of Gilead before. This is all natural, as common as Christian fellowship is, but all more or less painful and troublesome nowadays as it was then. A great stir is made among the tribes, and a great ambassage is formed to enquire into this matter. Something appeared in the ways of those who were on the other side of the river, which alarmed them as Israelites, as worshippers of Jehovah. It looked to be something which the common call of God could not allow for a moment. It must at least be explained.

What a living picture this is! Are we not at home here? Do we not know this spot well?

The calling and election of these eastern borderers was not made sure to their brethren, who were living in the place of the ark of God. They have to enquire and inspect their condition; and whatever the result of such inspection may be, the need of such a process is but a poor thing at least. I believe the First Epistle to the Corinthians is very much a Phinehas crossing the river to look after a pillar. There were things at Corinth which alarmed Paul. They seemed to be reigning as kings on the earth. His ministry in the meekness and gentleness of Christ was getting despised. The world was fashioning the hearts of saints there, and people were valued because of their place in the world. "The princes of this world," the men of the schools or the ways of the schools, were regaining their place, and saints were returning to settle where they ought to be unknown and strangers. Paul, in the zeal of Joshua 22, has to cross the river; and whatever the discovery may be, the action is a painful one, and the need of it a sad one in the history of the Church.

The tribes may satisfy Phinehas more than the Corinthians did Paul. All these varieties are known at this hour; but there is this common sorrow and humbling, that the call and election is not made sure; and we have either to take journeys or to occasion journeys, to have our own ways and altars as brethren read, instead of reading together the secrets of God's altar and tabernacle at Shiloh. J. G. B.

Three Things

Three Things.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend, vol. 13, 1886, p. 305.

1. We may so walk as to have ourselves in the presence of or in company with the Lord.

2. We may act so as to bring our fellow-saints or fellow-sinners into His presence or into His company.

3. We may be living so as to be keeping ourselves before our fellows and companions.

The first is the way of the worshipper.

The second is the activity of a true servant.

The third is the fruit of vanity, and want of single-heartedness, and will surely keep us uncertain, without joy or strength, and prove a snare as well as bitterness in the latter end.

Absalom

Absalom.

2 Samuel 11: 12.

"The fool hath said in his heart, No God!"

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 14, p. 193 etc.

David is the principal object before the mind of the Spirit of God in both the 1st and the 2nd books of Samuel. In the 1st book we see him brought from obscurity into honour and praise, and there standing, by the good hand of God, in full righteousness amid the persecutions of the wicked. In the 2nd we see him descending from honour, through sin, into degradation and ruin, but there learning the rich and marvellous ways of the grace of God. It is thus the sorrow of righteousness, or "David the martyr," that we first see; and the shame of sin, or "David the penitent," that we next see.

And these things give us different characters in the Psalms. In some of them we hear the breathings of a convicted conscience, a heart exercised in thoughts of transgression, searching after God again, and from thence rising into a blessed sense of grace and salvation. In others we hear the sorrows of conscious righteousness suffering the reproach of the wicked, but knowing all the while its title to fulness of joy and strength in God.

These are the varied exercises known to David's soul; and in all this he is the type of God's remnant in the latter time, who will have to pass through the shame and sorrows of afflicted and yet conscious integrity, and the shame also of convicted sin. For that remnant, though righteous in their own persons and conduct, will identify themselves with their nation in all its blood-guiltiness,* and look on Him who was pierced, and mourn as though they had pierced Him themselves.

*And as this unguilty remnant thus confess the sin of the nation, because they identify themselves with it, so does Jesus in the Psalms, though without sin, confess it, because He has consented to be "made sin for us."

And (wonderful, and yet blessed to tell it) David would not have known all that is in God, had he not passed through the sin of 2 Samuel, as well as the sorrow of 1 Samuel, for it is sin that manifests God.

And what a truth that is! I learn God in the darkness of mine own iniquity. For there was in God a deeper secret than all that His hand revealed in creation. There was the treasure of His bosom. There was grace in God, love for guilty ones; and Adam's sin drew that secret out; for "the Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head" at once came forth to tell him that God had something better than all the fruit of His six days' work of creation.

The direct history of Absalom may be considered as beginning with 2 Sam. 11. In the previous chapters of this book David had been advancing into power and the kingdom, approving himself to God and to the conscience of all men. In no scene in which he is called to take a part does he seek himself, or eye his own advantages. He considers the sorrows and dishonour of others rather than his own gains, and will be serving others though at his own expense. Thus he weeps over Saul and over Abner (2 Sam. 1 - 4), and it is his first concern, after he comes to the throne, to bring home the ark of God to Israel, and prepare it a worthy habitation; for which end he would be base in his own sight, and despise the shame of others. He sought the greatness of God's house, and not his own wealth, and the Lord prospered him whithersoever he went. As David would be only a servant, the Lord would make him honourable and prosperous; and even his mistakes savour of his virtues. It is his impatience to be serving that leads to his errors touching both the carriage of the ark and the building of the house. No doubt he was to be blamed, for in those matters he had not waited on the counsel of the Lord, as he had been wont to do; but this came from his desire to be doing service for God. He thought, to be sure, that in these things he must be right. He trusted his heart in them, and therefore did foolishly (Prov. 28: 26); but still his errors savour of that which was characteristically "David," being connected in his mind with desire to be in service for the Lord and His people. (2 Sam. 5 - 10.)

All this indeed is excellent; but all this does not make out a well-fought fight, and a stainless victory for David. All is not over even yet; such holy beginnings as these are not every thing. The strength of the summer sun is still to try this promise of the spring. He that girdeth on his armour must not boast as he that putteth it off. "Ye have need of patience" is the word, and so we shall find it even here with David.

It was the time, we read, when kings went forth to battle. (2 Sam. 11: 1.) But David the king tarries at Jerusalem, and that sets him at once in the flesh. He was not where the Spirit could own him, but has chosen his own way. It may seem to be a small thing, but it is enough for the enemy of his soul. It is only, one might say, a tarrying in the city when he should have been in the field of battle. But the little foxes spoil the vines, we read, "for the vines themselves are tender;" and this beginning may account for any result. Soft relaxing habits quickly come in, for the next moment we see him, instead of having girded the sword upon his thigh, lying on his bed at eventide. The outposts had been left unguarded, and the very citadel becomes an easy spoil for the enemy. Nothing could do for him now but to arise and shake himself, like Samson, in the strength of the Lord. But, like Samson, he appears as though he had already betrayed the secret of the Lord. And all because he got into the way of his own heart. He was drawn away by his own lusts and enticed; and lust was soon to conceive sin, and sin to bring forth death. Jerusalem, beloved, was David's place for himself, when the field of battle was God's place for him; and, little as that may seem, it is enough to lead to adultery. "Lord," may we all say, "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps."

But it is not merely one lust that enters by this door and riots in David's veins, for love of his fair name in the world now proves just as much a lust in him as the desire of his eye. The one led him to adultery with Bath-sheba, the other goads him to the murder of Uriah. He had no thirst after Uriah's blood, but rather contrives expedients to preserve it, and to that end will do all but surrender his place and reputation among men. He sends to the field of battle to fetch him home to his wife, and thus to be a covert for his sin; and when that will not do, his subtle and uneasy heart devises to make Uriah drunk, that he may still accomplish his end, and use him as a veil under which to hide his own iniquity. Nor is it till all these schemes were baffled, and righteousness in Uriah refuses to be so used in the service of sin in David, that David sacrifices him to his lust. To his love of the world he sacrifices Uriah now, as he had just before sacrificed Bath-sheba to the desire of his eye. And he will sacrifice even his nation to the same. He will so order it that the army of Israel may be defeated, as well as the blood of Uriah be shed before the walls of Rabbah, rather than that his good name should be made a scandal. All must go rather than David hazard that. Just as Pilate afterwards: — he was Caesar's friend, the world's friend; and, rather than hazard any breach in that friendship, Jesus must die. Sad thus to tell it, David and Pilate are found together. There was no more thirst for innocent blood in Pilate than there was in David; but there was the same love of his credit in the world in David as there was in Pilate. Pilate as well as David can try many devices to preserve the innocent blood and the world for himself at the same time; but David as well as Pilate will give up the one for the other if both cannot be retained together.

It is sad thus to class David and Pilate together. But flesh is flesh in whomsoever found. But David had now to prove that "sin, when it is perfected, bringeth forth death." And well is it for us when we prove that here through the Holy Ghost, and do not wait to prove it by the judgment of God by and by. So was it now with David. Adultery, murder, and falsehood had perfected the sin, and now came the bitterness of his soul. He takes the sentence of death in himself. "His bones wax old, and his moisture is turned into the drought of summer." (Psalm 32.) Death within was consuming him as a moth fretting a garment. There was no strength of grace as yet to confess the sin; but the life within was sensitive of the wound it had received. The spirit felt the grief it had been put to, but David kept silence and did not tell out his shame as yet, for guile was still in the spirit. (Psalm 32.) The voice of a prophet must call forth confession; but when it does come forth, it is indeed of a divine quality; for it is not merely the trespass against Uriah that his soul is conscious of and his lips confess, but he sees his sin in the light of God's glory. And it is there, beloved, we always see it when we see it aright; it is there we divinely know what sin is. "I have sinned against the Lord," said David; and with this apprehension he utters, "against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight." (Ps. 51.) Before this confession the spirit had its wound within, and it was intolerable. But this confession perfects his conversion; and then he was able to teach sinners the ways of the Lord, as Peter after he was converted could strengthen his brethren. When he had learnt the blessedness of grace abounding over sin, he could present himself to all other poor sinners as the warrant of their confidence in the Lord. "For this," says he, "shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found." (Ps. 32.) Like Paul he is set forth a pattern of all long-suffering, and like Peter he knows the restoring of a soul that had erred from the ways of righteousness.

In the striking style of Scripture, we now read, after David had accomplished his sin, "the thing that David had done displeased the Lord." There is no long account of God's anger, but this tells us of His mind towards the sin of His servant. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive them; and so we find it here. "I have sinned against the Lord" says David. "The Lord has put away thy sin," answers the prophet. (2 Sam. 12.)

2 Samuel 13, 14.

But acceptance into God's favour always puts us into one interest with God's honour in the world; and, from the moment of our acceptance through His grace, we are to be the servants of His glory. The moment we rest as sinners, we begin our labour as saints. By faith we rest as sinners knowing the virtue of the blood of Jesus for the full repose of the conscience before God: but from thence we labour as only in the prospect of the rest that is ours as saints. We become the servants of God's glory when we are made free through God's grace. And so here: David had been just led to his rest as a sinner — "The Lord has put away thy sin;" but now he must serve God's glory as a sinner brought near. As the name of God had been reproached through David, David must now bear the reproach too: and God will show His entire separation from the sin of His servant, and before all men, He must measure his former work into his bosom. The child that Bathsheba had borne him must die; as his sword had slain, Uriah, the sword now shall not depart from his house; and that which he had done to the shame of others, and done it secretly, others should now do to his shame in the sight of the sun.

It is in connection with all this that Absalom is introduced to us. He is to be made the rod in the Lord's hand for the chastening of David — a rod, too, taken out of his own stem — his own child; as the Lord by Nathan had just said to him, "behold I will raise up evil against thee, out of thine own house." Absalom meant not so, like the Assyrian afterwards (Isa. 10: 7). The Assyrian was to have a commission from the lord against the hypocritical nation, but in his heart he thinks only of the spoil and the prey. Absalom is now to serve his own lusts, but God will use him for the renewing of His servant in holiness.

We need not particularly consider the circumstance which is made to introduce Absalom to us. The sin of Amnon, and the sorrows of Tamar, had their purpose, and could well have been used in God's grace to keep poor David in lively recollection of his own sin and sorrow. It was a voice "in his own house" that must have spoken in thunder to him. Blood and uncleanness were staining his own children under his own eye. Tamar's virgin garment was now rent, a sore remembrance of the stain upon himself; and Amnon's blood was shed, awakening the voice of Uriah's blood in his ear from the earth. But we need not more particularly look at this. Absalom was Tamar's brother, and the son of David by a daughter of the king of Geshur (2 Sam. 3: 3) but we have nothing of him till now, when he appears at once before us its the subtle and wilful one, whose heart and eye were full only of their own devices and objects to reach which appears to be all his care. Amnon's wrong to his sister had raised a deadly fire in his heart, which two full years had no power to quench; but his crafty soul must find the happiest way to let out his rage on its victim. The fire buries as though it had been kindled but yesterday, and his subtlety devises a sure passage for it. It is all of Satan. The guile of the serpent ministers to the fury of the lion, and Absalom plots the matter of the sheep-shearing that he may get the blood of Amnon. David has some misgivings. How indeed could it be otherwise? Must he not, after all that he had done and all that the prophet had said to him, have feared every stir in the house? For one of his own house was to bring the evil upon him. He does not like this sheep-shearing feast which Absalom proposes. But he is pressed about it, and Amnon then goes, and falls before the treachery and sword of his brother. (2 Sam. 13.)

Absalom by this had defiled the land, and forfeited his life. (Num. 35: 33.) All that he can now do is to fly to strangers, for the land had no city of refuge for such an one. The avenger of blood might claim him of Bezer or of Kedesh. He had shed his brother's blood, and this cried for vengeance. But David was a man of affection. He had a heart that sought its indulgence in the relations and sympathies of human life, and, being the man after God's own heart, he would have found his joy rather in the ministrations of grace than in the exactions of righteousness. But Absalom had fled, for he was now debtor to that law of which David was the guardian, for David held his throne on the terms of reading the law continually. (Deut. 17.) What then can now be done? David may mourn for the son slain, and for the son banished, but are not both equally lost to him?

Now Joab was, in modern language, a consummate politician. He was nephew to the king, and thus the king's honour was in some sense his honour, and that he knew and valued and sought to retain; and therefore he never seeks to disturb the throne as now settled in the house of Jesse, his grandfather. He was content to be the second in the kingdom, for that his worldly wisdom tell him he might be in safety, but more than that he knew he could not seek without hazard. He could get both Abner and Amasa out of his way, when he thought they were intruding into that place, which he had eyed for himself; but the first place he would leave with David, and therefore never conspires against him, but is ever watchful of his interest, ever ready to let David take the principal post of honour (2 Sam. 12: 28), and is even quicker than David himself (2 Sam. 24) to discern and provide for the stability of the throne.

Such an one could not but be busy at such a moment as this. He knew the softness of David's heart, and easily calculated that any device to help him to bring back his banished child would be acceptable; and to do this acceptable service to the king, and thus to have a fresh claim to be the second round his throne, sets Joab in motion now. He did not much care for Absalom's exile, but in some sense "he carried the bag and bare what was put therein."

But the case was a very difficult one; for David, as I have said, might love his son and desire his return. But David was guardian of that law to which his son had exposed himself, and it was hard for Joab to contrive a way whereby David might let "mercy rejoice against judgment," and thus bring back his banished one.

"A wise woman" of Tekoah is, therefore provided, whom Joab instructs in this matter. Perhaps we may not know the proper sense of that description of her, but it will shortly appear that she was wise indeed, and that too in the secrets of God Himself. She feigns herself it mourner, and comes to the king with just such a title of sorrow as must at once have caught his affections, and brought his own sorrow fully to mind. She tells him of her two sons, how one had slain the other in a quarrel in a field, and that the kinsman was out against the manslayer, threatening to leave her a withered stump in the earth. David is surprised. Such matters should lie with the proper judges to determine between the avenger and the manslayer. (Num. 35.) But David is surprised — nature speaks in him too quickly — the yearnings of nature move him, and he gives her a pledge three times assured that nothing shall befall her son. Then, armed with this pledge, she more distinctly assails the heart of the king. She is willing to let the pledge be to Absalom the, king's son, and not to her son, and would have it known that she had been all the while pleading for David's sorrow and not for her own.

But "wise woman" as she was, she had deeper resources than even these. She had reached David's heart, and got a pledge from the desire and heat of human affection; but she seeks now to reconcile his conscience to all this, and to let him learn that he had a title in God Himself to let "mercy rejoice against judgment" to the guilty, as his soul desired, and as his lips had pledged. For all would be imperfect without this; for the king, as we have seen, was debtor to the law, and none could set it aside but he who established it. Samson, it is true, may marry a Philistine harlot, though the law denied all such commerce with any Gentile, when he has a dispensation from the Lawgiver. Gideon or Manoah may sacrifice on to rock, though the ordained place is elsewhere, if the Angel-Jehovah will stand by; and David himself may forsake the altar at Gibeon even for the threshing-floor of a Jebusite, when the God of grace meets him there. Now it is this principle of truth which the "wise woman" now brings to bear on the conscience, as her tale of woe had lately borne on the heart, of the king. She pleads with David in behalf of Absalom the very mercy of God in the gospel. She tells the king that he should fetch home his banished one; for says she, "we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground (i.e. good for nothing see: 1 Sam. 7: 6), which cannot be gathered up again, neither doth God respect any person, yet doth He devise means that His banished be not expelled from Him." Here she brings God's own way before David. She pleads that law of liberty (James 2: 12) — which expresses even the heart of God Himself in His dealings with poor sinners, the gospel of God's grace in which He righteously refuses to hear the law, and is just while the justifier of the guilty, having devised a way by which His banished ones return to him. Thus she pleads with his conscience, as she had before pleaded with his affections, and what call David do? Must he not give an answer in peace? Is he not satisfied? If the light of the gospel be thus by this wise woman brought to shine on him, must he not walk, and act in the light of it? Can he refuse to reflect it? This seems to be the way of her wisdom, and indeed it is strange and blessed. What a testimony this is! What a telling of the wonders of grace! That which is no better than water spilt on the ground is gathered up to be brought home to God Himself. (2 Sam. 14.)

This that we are meditating on is somewhat a neglected scripture. But it shows us that we may ofttimes find some stray and rich kidneys of wheat in the distant corners of the Lord's granary. And this gospel in the mouth of this unknown widow, the "wise woman of Tekoah," further shows us that Israel, even in their infant dispensation, had sweet truths to feed upon. From the beginning indeed the joy has been but one. "'The woman's seed" was the king's highway cast up under the eye of faith, the known and published good news, whereby God hath devised to fetch home His banished ones.

The king, however, seems not to be quite at ease. The pleading of our wise woman was as wise as it could have been. Nothing in its season could have been more perfect. But the king was the guardian of the law, and the softness of his heart had betrayed him into an act of grace by which he had undertaken to set the law aside, but the thought seems to be lurking there, that he was debtor to the law. However, according to the king's word, Absalom is brought home, but it is on terms of not seeing the king's face; and so he dwells two full years in Jerusalem apart from David.

But he is still Absalom; wherever or however we see him, he is himself. His taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed, even though he had now returned from captivity. (Jer. 48: 11.) He comes home the wilful Absalom still, the servant of his own passions and of them only. "Who is lord over us?" is the language of all his actings. His tongue was his own. "No God," says he, in his heart continually. All that can be said in any way of commendation is, like Saul before him, of his comeliness in the flesh. "In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty. From the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him:" we have no account of him beyond this of his beauty. His acts from first to last are enough to give him his right name and place before us; for in his own personal character, and in all in which it displays itself, Absalom is still the wilful one. He is the Saul of his day, or the apostate seed of the serpent, and the agent of the dragon, the usurper, the proud one who consults only his own will, which most surely carries him forth into full and constant resistance of God and His people. Even favours have but little claim on him. He may send to Joab to whom he owed every thing a second time, but beyond that small courtesy his heart owns no debt to him.

2 Samuel 15 - 18.

But the heart that is thus dead to the claims of kindness finds it easy to entertain any thing that Satan would propose. Thus, having exercised the rude strength of the lion in the corn-fields of his friends, he is quite prepared to practise the guile of the serpent in the kingdom of his father. The one or the other must be the way of Absalom. The child of him that was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, he knows no other master. He is Absalom, "the father of peace." But it is the peace of a deceiver. He comes in peaceably and takes the kingdom by flatteries. By good words and fair speeches he deceives the simple. He steals the hearts of his father's subjects, the people of the Lord and of His anointed. Nothing can be more corrupt than all his ways, for he is the mere slave of his own evil desires, let them urge him as they may, or set his heart on work with whatever device they may. And he will use any means for his own ends. He pretends the payment of a vow at Hebron, and takes with him two hundred men out of Jerusalem, to furnish as it might seem the table at the sacrificial feast; but all this was only to further his design upon the throne of his father. His slanders of his father, and flatteries of the people, had already prepared the nation for his pretensions; and now he sends out spies from Hebron to declare him through the land, and all too well in readiness for him, and speedily, therefore, the conspiracy was strong, and the people increased continually with him.

The Absaloms of every day have had their evil counsellors. This has been already noticed in the case of Saul, and some of these confederacies were then traced. Now we see it in the case of this apostate son of David. He gets Ahithophel to be with him, one who had stood among David's children. But the counsellor joins the child: one who had eaten of David's bread, and another with whom David had taken sweet counsel, none other or less than they, must now be found together against him.

But all this gives occasion to one of the most affecting scenes in the history of David as a penitent. We know not whether the more to admire the beautiful workmanship of the Spirit of God in David, when suffering for righteousness, or when suffering for transgression. Thus I have before touched upon. We see him the martyr in the days of Saul, but then as led by the Spirit reading a sweet lesson of instruction to us, showing all patience and all holy confidence in God; consenting to be hunted as a partridge in the mountains day after day, rather than take vengeance into his own hands, or lift himself up against the Lord's anointed. (1 Samuel.) And so now, though the scene be changed, and we have David the penitent rather than David the martyr, yet all is of equal interest and value to us, under the forming hand of the Spirit of God. (2 Samuel.)

Thus, when in 1 Samuel, the testimony of his conscience was for him, he would gird himself with all the gladness in God that he could get. He put on the ephod, he ate the bread of the sanctuary, he had the prophet and the priest with him in exile, and he carried the sword of Goliath, sweet pledge as it was that no weapon formed against him could prosper. All this was his then, and he claimed it all with confidence, carrying within him his title to rejoice in spirit, though circumstances were against him, knowing full well that he might have all in God, though nothing in man. He ate the fruit of an unwounded conscience, the glad feast of the Lord's unclouded countenance. Indeed he dared not then to have eaten the bread of mourners. Could he surround the altar of God with tears? Could he fast while the bridegroom was with him?

But now in 2 Samuel it is otherwise, for the testimony of his conscience was against him. He is now a sinner. It is sin that has found him out, and has brought him into remembrance before God, and it is not for such an one to keep holy day. He must bow his head and accept his punishment. And so he does, and brings forth fruit that was as much in season, as his previous harvest of joy and confidence had been in season. And in the same spirit of true repentance, he would be alone in the trouble. He would have Ittai his friend go back, and leave him to meet the sorrow alone, for it was he alone that had sinned and drawn out the hand of the Lord; but what had those sheep done? And still in the same spirit he sends back the ark and its priests, as having a joy for him that it did not become him now to taste. The ark, the presence of God, was David's best joy; but he was not entitled now to have it, and therefore he sends it home. All this was just the sorrow that became him now. "Carry back the ark of God," says he, "into the city: if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me again and show me both it and His habitation; but if He thus say, I have no delight in thee, behold here am I, let Him do to me as seemeth good to Him."

Nothing of joy was his at present. Lot the ark go back to the city, to shed the gladness of its presence there, he will go forward to Mount Olivet with tears and barefooted. He will eat nothing but the bread of mourners, and know nothing but the sorrow of the Bridegroom's absence. Surely this was godly sorrow working repentance. And beside all this, he will allow even the wicked to reproach him. Another Benjamite comes out against him to plague him sorely; one too whom he had never wronged, or done despite to, any more than to his kinsman Saul of old. But Shimei comes out against him in this the day of his calamity, and reviles him, casting stones at him, and cursing him still as he goes. But David reviles not again. He hears the righteous rebukes of God in all this, and bows his head. God had given Shimei a commission to do this. What could David suffer more than David deserved? was the thought of the heart of our penitent. Therefore let Shimei, the unworthy Shimei, do or speak as he may, with David it. is not Shimei but the Lord. (2 Sam. 15, 16.)

All this was fruit meet for repentance. It was all perfect in season. But though thus silent as towards Shimei, David in spirit judges that he may plead against Ahithophel, and he says, "O Lord, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness." And this desire the Lord allows, for he answers it by speedily confounding that evil counsellor.

The counsel which this apostate friend, and companion of David, counselled in those days, was as if a man had inquired at the oracle of God. But the Lord had now appointed to overthrow him. Absalom rejects his counsel, his word is passed by; and as his reputation for wisdom in the state was every thing to him, his household gods are thus now stolen from him, his "good thing" is gone, and he sinks down a defiled dishonoured ruin.

What a lesson to us all, beloved! What did any thing avail Haman, while Mordecai sat at the gate? What would not Saul give up, if he could but be honoured before the people? Oh the solemn lesson which all this reads to us. Have we, beloved, any thing that, if it were touched, our life would be touched, or is our life so bound up with Jesus, that we could stand the wreck of all beside? What treasures are they which we are laying up day by day? what vineyard is it that we are cultivating? Where is the ruling passion fixed, brethren? Where is the current of the heart flowing, what point is it hasting towards? Does Jesus draw its desires, and awaken its intelligence, or what of this world is its master-spring? It is well, beloved, to put these challenges to our poor hearts, and try them thus in the presence of our blessed Lord. "When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died." (2 Sam. 17.)

And Absalom the king is soon to be like this counsellor of his kingdom, for the beast and his false prophet perish together. But there was no prayer in the month of David against Absalom, as there had been against Ahithophol. How very striking is this, as indeed is every expression that we get of his heart all through these scenes. Nothing can be more perfect than this drawing by the divine hand. I have noticed this already in some features, and here again we trace it. He numbers the people, setting captains over hundreds and thousands of them, and making Joab, Abishai, and Ittai the chiefs. But he would fain go forth himself, for it was his sin which had brought all this mischief on the land, and David was of too noble a heart to let the mischief find any in the foreground but himself; and beside, he has his desire on Absalom still, and judges that his presence might help to shield him, for David was of too soft a heart to disown the feelings of a father even towards a rebel son.

But his people will not hear of this. What a loved man he was! and deservedly so, I am well assured: one, I judge, of the most attractive men that ever lived, who had qualities which could well command, and then detain beyond almost any other, the hearts and desires of all who know him. "Thou shalt not go forth," the people answered, "for if we flee away they will not care for us; but now thou art worth ten thousand of us therefore now it is better that thou succour us out of the city." As afterwards, when he was hazarding his life in battle with the Philistines, his men sware to him, saying "Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel" (2 Sam. 21: 17). And indeed he was their light, their gladness, and their leader, the honoured and loved one of his day, in favour with God and man. But he now bows to the word of his people, and though his heart is still towards Absalom, he goes not out, but, "deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom," is the last command he gives his captains on sending them forth to the battle.

With a heart stored with such affections "he sits between the gates to wait the solemn issue," and the captains and their armies go to the battle of the wood of Ephraim. Victory or defeat would be much the same to David. No result but must tell him whence it came, and be armed with a sad remembrance of that other battle in which another had fallen, fallen too in the judgment of God, as one murdered by his hand, though he was all the while dallying in the city. But the Lord is but refining, and in no wise destroying him. His chastening, blessed be His name, is salvation. For though He is jealous for His holy name, He pities His people. The battle is hot for a moment in the wood of Ephraim, but the Lord is in it, as before at Gibeon; and as there the hailstones, so here the wood devours more than the sword. There was a great slaughter that day of more than twenty thousand men. All is confusion and utter destruction in the ranks of the apostate, and Absalom is caught in the boughs of a great oak, and is taken up between the heaven and the earth, a spectacle to both. He is made a show of openly; for "he that is hanged is accursed of God," "and cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." (2 Sam. 18.)

2 Samuel 19 - 23.

Here was the end of another apostate, a more fearful one even than Saul. The paper on "Saul," to which this is in some sort kindred, has shown us that the evil king of Israel was a type of the wicked one in the latter day, who is to do according to his will, to magnify himself above God, and hold nothing in honour or desire but himself and his own way. Absalom in his day, as I have already observed, is type of the same wicked one. They are different samples of the same last great enemy of God and his people, who is to fill up the measure of human iniquity, and then call down the penal fire of God on all the corruptions of the earth. But there are features of all this self-will and wickedness in Absalom, that exceed even what we saw in Saul. Thus, Saul had been produced by the desire of the revolted heart of the nation. He was the man after the nation's heart. But Absalom generated his own evil preeminence. It was not the nation's but his own desire that brings him forth. And there is more of the violation of all the laws of nature in Absalom than in Saul. Absalom is the profane as well as the wicked prince (Ezek. 21: 25). With him it is not simply unbridled wickedness, but that profane wickedness that could trample on all the claims even of nature. Heady, high-minded, disobedient to parents, unthankful, without natural affection, the very characteristics of the perilous times in the last days, are more awfully developed in Absalom, than perhaps in any other even of the same rank of persons in Scripture.

It is not merely a corrupted, but an usurped, kingdom we see in the hand of Absalom; and this is another advance in iniquity upon the times of Saul. And still further I may observe, that Absalom seems entirely to disclaim the Lord all through the day of his usurpation. There is not one thought of God in the kingdom then. Ahithophel's counsel but no counsel from the Lord, — the strength of his thousands but no strength in the Lord, appears then. And as there is not one thought of God to stir his conscience, neither is there one thought or softening movement of heart because of his father's sorrow. Even the counsel to smite David alone pleased Absalom well (2 Sam. 17). Even Saul could weep at times, and confess righteousness in David; but Absalom's soul has nothing like a gracious visitation oven for a single moment. He never, if I may so say, even thinks of saying, "I have sinned," as Saul does. For what does Absalom care for sin? "Tush, God does not see," this is the language of his uncircumcised heart and lips from beginning to end.

Nor is there one Jonathan to relieve the entire darkness of the scene, as there had been in the court and camp of Saul. There was not one single point of relief with Absalom and all that was confederate with him. It is all the unmixed darkness of an evil and apostate hour. And the Lord can in no wise own him. He gives him no commission all through the days of his usurpation; He could not. He had entrusted Saul with the slaughter of the Amalekites, but Absalom is in no wise known to Him. He is his own, and none but his own, from beginning to end.

Such was Absalom, — one of the darkest pictures of human nature that we are given to look at in the word of God; and such is now his end. He hangs in the tree, — another Lot's wife to be had in constant remembrance. He had taken and reared up for himself a pillar in the king's dale, and called it after his own name, because he had no son to keep his memorial alive in the earth. But the Lord was now giving him another and a far different memorial — a memorial in shame and not in glory. His body was cast into a pit in the wood, and a great heap of stones was laid on him. All his glory was thus tarnished. He was hung by the hair of his head, which had been his boast in the flesh; and, instead of a, pillar to his own name, he is made a pillar to us — a witness of the shame and ruin of apostacy. — "The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of fools."

This overthrow of Absalom was like the loss of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, or as the fall of Saul on Mount Gilboa, or as by and by, the ruin of that man who having planted the tabernacle of his palaces in the glorious holy mountain shall then come to his end, and none shall help him.

But here let us mark it, that Moses and the congregation of Israel may sing "the Lord has triumphed gloriously;" and Deborah and Barak in their turn may likewise sing, "so let all thine enemies perish, O Lord;" for songs belong to a merry heart, to those who have the testimony of their conscience with them. But there could be no music in David's heart now. That heart was no sanctuary of praise now. How could David at this time enter the gates, and praise the Lord? Those gates open only to the righteous nation that keep the truth. God had appointed salvation for walls and bulwarks, and praise for gates; but David must be silent there, because he had sinned against the Lord. O dear Brethren, that we may be faithful to our own joys; that we may so carry ourselves before the Lord our God, as to be able to run along with the saints in their prosperity, and with the chosen in their gladness, and know no check in our spirit, as poor David now knows in this feast-day of the Lord.

No: David has no music at this time. Absalom had fallen, and the blood of Uriah was crying from the ground afresh in David's ears. It was not meet that he should make merry and be glad. He could not eat of the sacrifices, for such and such things had befallen him (Lev. 10: 19). Victory was defeat, and life was death to David. His path is still the perfect path of the penitent; and thus he now goes to his chamber rather than to his throne; and as he goes, he weeps. and says, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"

Better is it to have our path ordered by the Spirit within, though it may be a path of heaviness, than allow it to be determined by mere circumstances around. Thus was it now with David. The Spirit of God was leading him along, and he shall find life and peace at the end, though his sin had made the way dark and dreary for the present. But his sorrow must be all his own. The people had earned a victory, and were entitled to their rewards, and the king's sorrow must not be allowed to tarnish their joy. Joab therefore recalls David to his people, and his people's claims upon him, and David is awakened and goes forth to take his place in the scene again. He arises and sits in the gate; all the people come before him, and the tide of their desires return to him, and all his enemies are put to shame (2 Sam. 19.)

Thus was the restoration in happy progress; but there arises even after this, a little delay and difficulty in setting all in order, for the mischief had been great. Hence the matter of Sheba, the son of Bichri, another Benjamite (2 Sam. 20.)

But the Lord returns to him in full reconciliation. He is again inquired of by him; and in a day of public calamity, David learns that no sin of his was then in remembrance, but the sin of Saul and his bloody house. And this was for the healing of David's wounded spirit. The goodness of God had led him to repentance; and no sting was to be left behind, no remembrance of all that had now passed was to remain; save where our sin, beloved, is ever to be remembered, in the increased care and diligence and watchfulness of our own spirit (2 Sam. 21.)

This was very gracious. But even more than this is preparing to witness to David what God was; for in the same grace and tender-kindness, the good Lord, in due season, prepares a song for David, wherein the Spirit leads him to forget all but the divine mercies. "David spake the words of this song in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul." It is Saul that is here called to mind and not Absalom. Nothing is remembered but the injuries of an evil and unoffended enemy, and all the tale of sin and shame that followed is forgotten. David sings like a "virgin soul." The Spirit recalls nothing that could have checked the song, and the flow of his heart in the joy of it; for when the Lord forgives He forgets also. At the end of the wilderness (though the Lord had disciplined and rebuked Israel by the way), it was only this: "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel" (2 Sam. 22.)

There was something very gracious and exalted in the Lord putting this song into David's lips. But we are to see greater things than even these, for after this song which thus rehearses the goodness of God and his rich triumphant grace, we read "the last words of David." In them the Spirit leads him to trace the moral of his whole history. His commission as King of Israel had been to rule "in the fear of God," and thus be as "the light of the morning" to his people. But this had not been so, and therefore his house was for the present not to be established; but the Spirit leads him still onward to look above present failure to One who should thus rule and thus establish his house for ever, and in whom these mercies of God to him should be sure and abiding mercies, when also the sons of the alien, the sons of Belial, the seed of all evil-doers, should be utterly consumed in the decreed place, thrust away as unprofitable thorns. To this, as to his rest, the Spirit of God leads David, and these are his "last words" (2 Sam. 23. )

Thus, in these three chapters, we get the full reconciliation between God and his servant, attested by three witnesses. The matter of the Gibeonites — the song — the last words of David — all tell us this. And thus we have seen the way of David, but also the end of the Lord. "The man who was raised up on high," "the anointed of the God of Jacob," "the sweet Psalmist of Israel," is set up to celebrate in his own person and history the shining ways of God. Sin had reigned unto death; but grace had also reigned, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.

2 Samuel.

Here we end the path of David through the 1st and 2nd books of Samuel, or through the, times of "Saul" and "Absalom." It is grace which God has been exhibiting in this history; and exhibiting in it all its blessed fulness. — We see its early dawn in the election of David, when men were despising him (1 Sam. 16: 11). — We see its brighter and fuller shinings all through the days of the trial and sorrow of righteousness, for grace then was watching over its object, lest any fowler should hurt him, keeping him, though hunted like a bird in the mountains, night and day (1 Sam. 18 - 31). Then, grace established this elect and favoured one in honour and peace above the malice and power of all his foes (2 Sam. 5). At the end grace shows its brightest glory, and does its noblest and holiest work, — it restores this elect and honoured one, when, in a dark and evil hour, he had turned from the ways of righteousness and peace (2 Sam. 11 - 23). Then did it rise to its noonday strength. Its early dawn had been sweet, the course which it then ran, as in the heavens, was bright and steady, but its full glory now broke out, when tainted David, like a "virgin soul," sings his joys and triumphs in God.

These were the treasures of grace; and God was making a show of them, to His praise and our comfort, in David. Glory comes forth to shine afterwards, in like manner, in Solomon; but grace thus beforehand, had told of herself in David. It was grace electing, grace refreshing, grace exalting, and grace restoring, that the lips of the sinner might be occupied with a theme of blissful and everlasting praise.

But there is one other thing that we have to notice still. — As grace was thus displayed towards David, so was it displayed in David. It was the great rule of his life, giving character to his dealings with others, as it had thus given character to God's dealings with Him. Being called to inherit blessing, he renders blessing. Thus, when reviled, he reviled not again (1 Sam. 17: 29). Afterwards when persecuted, he threatened not, but suffered it (1 Sam 18 - 31). In every scene in which he is called to take a part, either in action or in suffering (save where he is turned aside by Satan for awhile, as we have been seeing), it is not himself he is seeking or honouring, but others that he is serving in grace and kindness. The death of Saul and Jonathan make easy way for David to the throne; but his own advantage is not the circumstance in that event which governs his thoughts about it, he sees only the dishonour of the Lords anointed in it, and therefore weeps, instead of triumphs, over the day of Mount Gilboa. So in the fall of Abner and Ishbosheth, which was the quenching of the last light of Saul in Israel, it is only the sorrow and fasting of David that we hear of. It was not his own honour or advantage, that even then determined the state of his mind. — And so when fully settled in the throne, he is the man of grace and kindness still, remembering in that hour of glory those who had been the friends of his affliction and exile, and making it his care and business to find out some of the house of Saul to whom he might show the "kindness of God" (2 Sam. 1 - 10). He would be an imitator or follower of God, as a dear child; for what a God-like desire was that, "Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I might show the kindness of God unto him?" Saul's house had deserved evil, and not good, from David; but this made David's kindness to them God's kindness, for "God commendeth His love toward us, in that when we were yet sinners Christ died for us." — And, in the same grace afterwards, David refuses to judge Shimei (2 Sam. 16, 19). The thought of the sons of Zeruiah was loathsome to David's soul. "What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah?" says he to them, when they were for exacting righteousness. They understood not grace, but David understood nothing else. Mercy had rejoiced over judgment towards himself in the heart of the Lord, and nothing but the same can or must be found in the heart of David towards Shimei or the worst of his enemies.

Thus the history of David, through these 1st and 2nd books of Samuel, or through these times of "Saul" and "Absalom," tells us, beloved, what God's ways are, and what our ways should be. As His ways to us are in grace, so should be our ways to one another and to all men. In "this present evil world" of sin and sorrow we are learning God's grace to perfection, in our own souls, daily, and should let others learn it in our walk and intercourse with them in like manner daily. By and by in the shining "world to come," we shall learn glory in the same perfection. For David was followed by Solomon, and the God of all grace has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, that He Himself may be our boast and song, and satisfying praise for ever and ever.

Dearly beloved, in the joy and liberty of the precious and perfect love which is ours now, let us pray that we might abound in the hope of the kingdom that is to be ours also, and walk above a world in which our blessed Master could not rest. — Grant this to all thy saints, O Lord, for Jesus our Saviour's sake! Amen.

Afflictions and Consolations

Afflictions and Consolations.

Notes of an Address on the First Epistle of Peter

By J. G. B. Aug., 1851.

(extracted from The Northern Witness, 1880)

There are three things in this epistle: 1st, the apostle contemplates the saint in times of various troubles; 2ndly, the mind with which the trouble should be passed through; and 3rdly, the consolations which God provides for such a time. There is nothing very remarkable in the bearing of it; but so much the more needed by the soul very often; — it is homely, practical. Godly power marks the whole of the epistle.

Observe he addresses it to "strangers scattered throughout Pontus," etc. (1 Peter 1: 1.) Now the very salutation intimates that things are not right with them here — "scattered strangers!" as though they had no certain dwelling-place, like their Master. It is not said, "an embodied church," with all its ceremonies and ordinances; but he addresses himself to "scattered strangers." This alone puts the saint into a place of suffering — they had no rest for the sole of their foot — they are "strangers," scattered to and fro.

Now the first trial that he contemplates in the first chapter, is the trial of faith (1 Peter 1: 5-13). The form of trial here is that dealing of God's hand with you, which has its direct business with your faith — whose office and property it is to exercise the soul in the principles of faith. He does not define what it may be — it may be a circumstance or disappointment; but something, the direct character of which is, to link the heart with the objects of faith. And it is very beautiful, in the wisdom of the Spirit, to leave it undefined, the only thing that marks it being this — it is the trial of faith. And we all know it. If you meet with a disappointment or loss, what is the support under it? Why, this "looking forward." It may cause present heaviness; but the support which God provides for this trial of faith is, "the looking forward;" that in the day of the appearing of Christ, this faith, which has been burnished by the fire, shall be found unto praise, and honour, and glory.

Now just look at those three things — here is the trial of faith — the exercise of heart, fitted to link it with eternity and heaven — the Lord comforting the heart under such a trial by directing it onward to the appearing of Jesus, and the Lord counselling the heart how to behave itself under the trial — "Gird up the loins" — don't be faint-hearted — don't yield — "be ye sober," and hope — hope still!

How simple is this! The character of the trial is undefined; and whatever cross or accident meets you in your path, you may put it down — happily put it down to the account of this — it is designed by your heavenly Father to try your faith. No matter how it may happen. The Spirit of God does not tell you to reason about it; but tells you to submit under it, and rejoice in the hope to which it is all leading.

In the 1 Peter 2, you find a very well defined trial. There is comfort provided, and duty prescribed in the midst of it. Now read with me from 1 Peter 1: 18 to 1 Peter 1: 21 — "Servants be subject," etc. Now here there is a very well defined suffering or trial. It is not left unexpressed as in the previous chapter, but here is a suffering that is commonly known in human life, and the more we ought to value it. Here is a suffering brought from the ill usage and treatment of others — a servant suffering under the hand of a froward master. Well, it may be a neighbour suffering under the hand of an evil-minded neighbour or relative. You may put it in various forms — (the Spirit need not illustrate every case). But here we have a servant enduring the frowardness of an evil-minded master. Now here is a well-understood, and oft-experienced sorrow in this life. It is but the trial of faith — Oh, how one admires this! There is comfort in showing this, that the Spirit of God knows your little secret frettings, and that there are none of them, however small or ordinary, outside His sympathy. Well, how does He tell them to behave themselves? Beautifully. In the first place, for their great comfort, He says — "All this secret fretting foes on under the eye of God with deep acceptableness." Oh, what a comfort this is! Suppose a poor, silent, suffering servant, meeting the ill nature of his master, why there he is in such a condition; but all day long the eye of God is resting on his behaviour with delight and complacency. That is the ingredient in the scene which faith apprehends. Nature will feel the suffering; but faith apprehends the unseen eye of God waiting upon the patient endurance of the servant with complacency.

A servant, suffering all the day long from the frowardness of an evil master, was the life of Jesus. He was reviled, and ill-treated by an apostate world, yet He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him who judgeth righteously. Now does not the apostle speak very sweetly to us there? He comes, and looks at them in the most common scene of human life, and he dignifies it; the most common material in human life he dignifies with the sympathies of Christ, and hen dignifies with the complacency of God Himself. Can anything be more precious than that? Again, I say, nothing more common-place, and that is what makes it so delightful.

Now look at the 3rd chapter. You get another suffering, but in a different form. In the 14th verse — "If ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye," etc. (1 Peter 3: 14-22). Now here is a new kind of suffering — "for righteousness sake;" that is, you go on in a path of integrity — a path of uprightness — maintaining that at all cost; you are faithful to the Lord, and this brings you into suffering. Now this is another kind of trial. And how does the Spirit of God comfort us under that? Why He tells us, beloved, to "sanctify the Lord God in our hearts" — to remember Christ just in the same condition; and He points us to the days of Noah. Noah for a long period (120 years) — what was he doing then? He was preparing the ark. He looked to be the fool of his generation — the very object of scorn — that he should occupy morning and evening, day after day, and year after year preparing an ark — preparing a ship for dry ground! It was utter folly. Well, it was the path that God had laid out for him, and, whatever it might have cost him, he had God with him. He "sanctified the Lord God in his heart;" and not only that, beloved; not only had he communion, but he had this, the answer of a good conscience towards God; not only was he upright, but he was making that ark which was every moment to him the witness of his eternal safety. He knew it — he knew that the waters were coming — that a day of judgment was before him; but every stroke of his hammer went as a blessed witness to his soul, that he should be safe in that day of trial. Well, so the Spirit of God tells us, we are to pass through the trial, having "the answer of a good conscience towards God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

There is a beautiful link between Noah preparing the ark, and what ought to be the condition of your soul. You should have a good conscience — not a good moral conscience, but a freed conscience. The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives you a good conscience towards God — it discharges your conscience from all guilt, and delivers it from all fear of a coming judgment. Just as Noah, every stroke of his hammer told him he would be safe in the day of judgment; so you ought to go on in the trials of righteousness which the maintenance of a good conscience may bring, in the support of a good conscience towards God. You must not give up a good moral conscience; let the exercise of righteousness in the world cost you what suffering it may, you must not give up righteousness; but your support in this path is this, that between you and God, all is settled for eternity — the resurrection of Jesus Christ has sealed upon your conscience eternal peace.

Now what a beautiful picture is this of the suffering saint! If it be, as we have seen, the trial of his faith — if it be a servant, enduring all the day long the ill-treatment of a froward master — or here, if, at the cost of everything, he maintains the righteousness and uprightness of his walk, and thus maintains a good conscience — his comfort is this, that which poor Noah enjoyed — whenever judgment might come, he was as safe as if he were in heaven.

Well now in 1 Peter 4 you get another kind of sorrow, and that is in the very opening of it. You must count upon the trial, not of righteousness, but of holiness. The former was given in the 3rd chapter; the trial of holiness in given in the opening of the 4th. What is the difference? Righteousness is uprightness of conduct outside, in the world; holiness is the pure and chaste behaviour, in your own members within. Well that is put to trial in this world too — one without, and the other within. As you have to fight the battle of holiness within, so you have to fight the battle of righteousness without. You are to fight the fight of holiness in your own members, as you are to fight the fight of righteousness in the course of the world. And what is your comfort? Why this, that you shall soon give an account to Him that is ready to judge quick and dead; and remember, that while you are fighting this fight of holiness, you are living your time, not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. There is your comfort. If we had any bit of heart at all, it would be a great support to us to know that God is with us.

In the progress of the 4th chapter, you find another form of suffering, and that is what we call "martyr suffering." Not suffering from the trial of faith, or from the frowardness of an evil master, from a relation, or nearest of kin, nor the suffering for righteousness, nor the trial of holiness in the members, but more characteristically what we call martyr-suffering. Well, how does he speak to us under that? "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial. . . . . But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings," etc. (1 Peter 4: 12, 13).

Oh, with what a cheerful mind the Spirit of God speaks! Supposing we were this moment dragged off to the prison — to meet the stake, like hundreds before us — see with what a cheerful spirit the Holy Ghost would put us on the journey! "Think it not strange," says He; for when you are taking the journey to the prison or the stake, you are only on the journey with the Saviour to Calvary. You and I may not be prepared for it, but we must not measure the Spirit's thoughts by our attainments. It is but a little pain for a while, when His glory shall appear. "Ye may be glad," etc., 1 Peter 4: 13, 14. Now mark the current of the cheerful spirit here, "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you," etc. 1 Peter 4: 13, 14. Happy thing it is, that when the martyr is on his way to death, you should see the Spirit of glory resting upon his head. His persecutions for Christ's sake are the very plattings of the crown upon his brow! It is the blessed Saviour coming and fitting the crown upon his brow. "The Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you." And again I say, in this, which to nature is the gloomiest we have looked at yet — in the trial of faith, in enduring the ill-treatment of others, we may have human relief; but here, shut up to Christ, with nothing but the gloom of a prison around us, nothing but the fiery stake before the eye — here the glad spirit, the oil of gladness, comes to anoint the spirit richly. And, O beloved! To know that, while even in the dungeon, the hand of God is fitting a crown of glory to the brow! "The Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified." We know not what a day may bring forth, but Jesus knows, and He will provide.

Well then, in the last chapter, you find here, at the 6th verse, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." (1 Peter 5: 6). And here I believe we return very much to the first chapter. We can't tell in what form that "mighty hand" may humble. It may be by removing prop after prop, disappointing one expectation of the heart after another. It may be by terrible ways God may humble you; and what is worst of all, He may appear in the very act to be against you. He may seem to carry Himself so wilfully against your circumstances and your present joys, that the heart will begin to fear lest God should be against us. It is a "mighty hand;" but let that comfort you instead of frightening you. There is a great comfort in this word "mighty." It is not a "soothing hand;" it is a "mighty hand," that seems set on bruising. Well, what says the Spirit of God? "Humble yourselves" under it, for "He will exalt you." Oh how beautiful! See how roughly Joseph spoke to his brethren. He put them in prison — told the keepers to take charge of them — but in secret he wept; and, in due time, he "exalted" them.

"Casting all your care upon Him," etc. (1 Peter 5: 7). Oh, what comfort there is here! I don't believe that Joseph's tears in secret have a stronger voice in our ears than this, because it tells us, that while the hand is dealing roughly outside, the heart is feeling inside. Well, there it is; and as to the devil's temptation, resist him. Don't "humble yourselves" under that hand — "resist" him, just as did Jesus of old — "Get thee behind me, Satan" — and "the God of all grace, who hath called us," etc., "perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you," (1 Peter 5: 10). Thus the mighty energy of the Holy Ghost carries the apostle Peter, and you, and me, as well as those "strangers," in the hearing of all saints, through every variety of human trial. Whether it is the undefined exercise and trial of faith; whether it is enduring suffering from the frowardness and ill-nature of those that are around us, or from the maintenance of righteousness and a good conscience, or from the struggles between flesh and Spirit, or martyr-suffering; or enduring under the hand of God, or the devil himself — the mighty energy of the Spirit of God carries Peter through them all, to provide strength and consolation. The Lord help our unbelief — take our hearts, and keep them in company with these eternal realities; and then, if it be the stake itself, let us meet it with a cheerful heart; deeply assured of this, that the hand of God is weaving a crown for the brows of His faithful people!

Babylon

Babylon.

Rev. 17, 18.

from  Musings on Scripture, Volume 1.

J. G. Bellett.

"Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth." This is a saying much to be remembered. It teaches us that we are not to make ourselves the judges of what sanctification or holiness is; Gods' word is to determine this, because holiness is that character or mind which is formed by God's word or truth.

We are apt to think that our own moral sense of things is the rule of holiness. But the word of God claims to be such a rule: "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth" (John 17: 17). An act may be unholy, though done with a good conscience, because "the truth," and not the conscience, is the rule of holiness.

If that rule were applied to many a thing which the moral sense or the religious sense of man approves, how it would change its character! And the Lord cannot change His standard of holiness, though He may be infinitely gracious to the shortcomings of His saints.

Those other words, "For their sakes I sanctify my. self, that they also might be sanctified through the truth," which stand in connection, have their own force and value also. Thus, in the whole of His utterance in John 17, the Lord strongly takes a place apart from the world, and puts His saints in the like place, praying that they may be kept there. In this sense, I believe, He speaks of sanctifying Himself. Through all this church-age He is apart from the world and the earth; and sanctification depends on our communion with Him in that separated place. "The truth," testifying as it does of Him, links us with Him in that place; and sanctification is thus "through the truth," leading us to fellowship with an unworldly Jesus.

We may see instances of such sanctification from the beginning.

When the ground was cursed for man's sake, holiness was separation from it, as in the persons of the antediluvian saints; uncleanness was cleaving to it, as did the family of Cain.

When the earth again corrupted itself, and God judged it by the scattering of the nations, holiness was separation from it, as in Abraham; and apostasy was a clinging to it in spite of judgment; as Nimrod did.

When Canaan was judged, Achan's sin savoured of the apostate mind; but Israel became a holy people by separating from it, and from all people of the earth, by the ordinances of God and the sword of Joshua.

But Israel revolts. The circumcision becomes uncircumcision, and with them all on the face of the earth or in the world becomes defiled, and holiness is separation from it in companionship with a rejected and heavenly Christ.

The whole system, the world, is the judged or cursed thing now. It is the Jericho. While the camp lingers in the wilderness, we may be at charges or in labours on a mission to draw out the Rahabs; but we cannot seek the improvement of Jericho, or display the resources and capabilities of the world. The world, as including other thoughts, is also any moral or religious system or undertaking which does not act in company with a rejected and heavenly Christ. Such doings would be unholy, not according to "the truth," however morally conducted or benevolently intentioned.

To glory without going on to "perfection" in a crucified Christ will not, if alone, be the "perfection" in this age; there must be companionship with a rejected Christ also. Babylon, I believe, the mystic Babylon of the Revelation, may be brought to boast in a crucified Christ, and be Babylon still. For what is it as delineated by the Spirit? Is it not a thing worldly in character, as well as abominable and idolatrous in doctrine and practice? Revelation 18 gives us a sight of Babylon in its worldliness, as, Rev. 17 more in its idolatries. Babylon of old, as in the land of Chaldea, was full of idols, and guilty of the blood or of the sorrows of the righteous. But it had also this mark: it displayed greatness in the world in the time of Jerusalem's depression. So with the mystic Babylon. She has her abominations in the midst of her, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus stains her; but still more fully is she disclosed as great and splendid and joyous in the earth during the age of Christ's rejection. She is important in the world in that day when the judgment of God is preparing for the world; she can glorify herself and live deliciously in a defiled place.

It is not that she outwardly ignores the cross of Christ. She is not heathen. She may publish Christ crucified, but she refuses to know Christ rejected. She does not continue with Him in His temptations, nor consider the poor and needy Jesus (Luke 22; Psalm 40). The kings of the earth and the merchants of the earth are her friends, and the inhabitants of the earth are her subjects.

Is not, then, the rejection of Christ the thing she practically scorns? Surely it is. And again, I say, the prevailing thought of the Spirit about her is this — she is that which is exalted in the world while God's Witness is depressed, and in defiance of that depression, for she knows of it. Babylon of old well knew of the desolation of Jerusalem; Christendom externally knows and publishes the cross of Jesus.

Babylon of old was very bold in her defiance of the grief of Zion. She made the captives of Zion to contribute to her greatness and her enjoyments. Nebuchadnezzar had done this with the captive youths, and Belshazzar with the captive vessels.

This was Babylon, and in spirit this is Christendom. Christendom is the thing which glorifies herself and lives deliciously in the earth, trading in all that is desirable and costly in the world's esteem, in the very face of the sorrow and rejection of that which is God's. Christendom practically forgets Christ rejected on the earth.

The, Medo-Persian power is another creature. He removes Babylon, but exalts himself Dan. 6). And this is the action of "the beast" and his ten kings. The woman, mystically Babylon, is removed by the ten kings; but then they give their power to the beast, who exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, as Darius the Mede did.

This is the closing crowning feature in the picture of the world's apostasy. But we have not reached it yet. Our conflict is with Babylon and not with the Mede, with that which lives deliciously and in honour during the age of Jerusalem's ruins (i.e., of the rejection of Christ).

Belshazzar's Feast in its Application to the Great Exhibition

Belshazzar's Feast in its Application to the Great Exhibition.

from Musings on Scripture, Volume 2.

J. G. Bellett.

[Only articles not found elsewhere are shown here.]

While Jeremiah was left at Jerusalem to witness the course of moral corruption there, and to warn of coming judgment, and while Ezekiel was among the remnant in the place of discipline or of righteousness on the river Chebar, Daniel is set among the Gentiles, even at Babylon, to learn the history and the ways of the Gentiles, or the world.

We may see this in his first six chapters, which constitute the first part of the book. In Daniel 1 we see the Gentiles, or the world, set up. Then in Daniel 2 we get the same system, the world, in its political career onward to the kingdom, figured in the great image, seen in all its parts, from its head of gold to its toes of iron-clay; and judged, in the appointed hour, by the stone which becomes a mountain, to occupy the scene of power all the world over, with an untransferable kingdom. Then in the four following chapters, the stories of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius give us the moral course of the world. In Nebuchadnezzar we get a persecuting power, connected with human religion or idolatry. The king sets up an image and demands the worship of it on pain of the fiery furnace. The righteous refuse and suffer. In Belshazzar we get the easy, worldly, self-indulgent thing, with contempt of religion. The king makes a feast, worshipping all that which ministered to his pleasures. The righteous are utter strangers to it all. In Darius we get a persecuting power again, but it is in connection with self-exaltation. The king makes an interdict that none are to be treated as God but himself, for so many days on pain of the lion's den. The righteous again refuse and suffer.

These are plain and sure distinctions in the progress of Gentile iniquity. And it may strike us, I judge, very clearly, that we are present rather in the day of Belshazzar. Persecution and idol-service gave character to the preceding day, and persecution and deification of man to the day which followed; but all was easy indifference, with thorough satisfaction in the present things of the world, in the day of Belshazzar. Refusal and consequent suffering form the path or history of the righteous in the times of the idolatrous, persecuting Nebuchadnezzar, and of the self-exalting, persecuting Darius; but in the times of Belshazzar, perfect and thorough separation is the place of the saints of God.

There is a voice for us in all this. Daniel is not seen at the feast. And there is one, though not in his strength yet much in his spirit, who is absent also — the queen, the king's mother. The king is ignorant of the man of God who was then in his dominions. He is also unmindful of the doings of God which had been in the same dominions in the days of his father. But the queen has recollections and knowledge of these things, and she is a stranger to his feast.

Is not the question then with us to be this: Who is the separated one now? Who is going to the king's feast, or who, in the light of the Lord, is separated from it? The present is in easy, self-indulgent, worldly moment. The gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of wood and of iron, are praised. All the capabilities in the world to make a feast are produced, and displayed, and gloried in. Social accommodation and social delights are the great object. Man's works, the fruit of his skill and the resources of his country, adorn and furnish the scene. and are the host of the feast, that which gathers and entertains. Man is providing the joy of this awful hour in the world's history — awful indeed, not in the judgments or sorrows which are upon it, but in the moral principles which are quickening it. The captivity of Zion was heedlessly forgotten by Belshazzar, and the vessels of God's temple were profaned. The operations of His hands were not considered, but the wine and the tabret were in his feast. So now; the rejection of Christ is by common consent forgotten, that man may meet his fellow, greet him with a common joy and with a common welcome, because they are all of one earth, of the same world, of kindred flesh and blood; and all God's claims on His elect and testimony against the world are thrown together as what for a season must be passed by, till the feast-day is kept.

Where then, again I ask, is the separated one? Where is Daniel? Where is the king's mother? The feast does not attract either of them, though they may be in different measures of strength. Daniel knew the character of it before the judgment of it was pronounced. He does not wait for the fingers of the man's hand to put him into his place in relation to it. He is not moved by the mysterious writing on the wall. Sudden destruction, as a thief in the night, does not come upon him. He and his companion, though "a weaker vessel," are, in the spirit of their minds, in the place from whence these fingers were sent — they were "children of light as children of the day." The judgment upon the feast had no terror for them, for they were not at the feast. They had judged it already. Their separation was not sleep. "They that sleep sleep in the night, and they that are drunken are drunken in the night." But they were no more indifferent to it than taking their pleasure at it. Their separation therefore, as I said, was not sleep. In a divine sense they watched and were sober (1 Thess. 5: 3). In the separated place Daniel knew the judgment of God about it all, long before the writing on the wall announced it to the world. All this is full of meaning for us.

I am not going to say that the form of evil which Belshazzar's day presents is the worst. Nebuchadnezzar set up an idol before that day, and Darius set up himself after it. The fiery furnace was heated for the saints in the former reign, and the lion's den was open for them in the latter. The day of Belshazzar witnessed nothing of this. The abomination in the plain of Dura did not demand worship then, neither did the royal statute forbid worship toward Jerusalem then. But still there is something in Belshazzar himself, if not in his day, which especially provoked the Spirit of the Lord. Daniel can feel for Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar is brought to a right repentant mind, and the judgment of God is reversed. Daniel too, can feel for Darius, and Darius is seen in humbled gracious meltings of soul, and we can all pity him — pity him when we see him unwittingly involved in results which a moment's vanity and easiness of nature had led to. But from us Belshazzar gets no kindly movement of heart, from the Spirit of God in Daniel nothing but stern rebuke, and from the hand of God nothing but swift destruction, the fingers on the wall announcing it, and the sword of the Median executing it; "In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain."

He was the easy man of the world. He despised all religious fear. What he worshipped was his pleasures, the gods of silver, of brass, and of gold, the vessels which could fill out his entertainments and make provision for his lusts. He did not summon the world to either his idol or himself, but to his board and to his holyday. Nebuchadnezzar makes an image, Darius a royal decree, Belshazzar a feast. But Jerusalem and her sorrows are forgotten, the temple and its furniture despised. The wonders which the God of Jerusalem and of the temple had freshly wrought in the land were all a dream or a fiction with him, and the very spoils of His house he can use in making merry with his friends.

This was easy worldliness — the heartless way of man who can forget God's wonders, and the rejection and humiliation of Christ. And all this is terrible. The harp, and the pipe, and the tabret are in such feasts; but the operation of God's hands are forgotten. Till now the vessels of God's house had been held in some fear and honour. But now they are profaned and made to serve the lusts of the king. God had ordained them to witness the separation of His priestly nation, and His own worship in the midst of His people; but the king makes them the instruments of his sport.

And what, I ask, is the effect to deck out the world, to enjoy it, and to boast of it, while Jesus is rejected by its citizens? Is it not a thing in kindred spirit with this? The rejection of Christ is forgotten yea, despised; for that is gloried in and displayed which continues the word, "We will not have this man to reign over us." Is not this somewhat of taking of the choice vessels of God's house, in the very day of their captivity, to make merry with them?

The present moment may surely thus remind us of Belshazzar's feast. God's of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, and of wood are praised; the resources and capabilities of the world are displayed, thoughtless of its rejection of Christ. And are any of the captivity at the king's feast? Israel was captive together with the vessels of the temple. Would any of them be so thoughtless as to make merry with the king who was despising the spoils of that house? Would any of the servants of the rejected nobleman take part with the citizens in setting forth the wonders of their blood-stained land? (See Luke 19)

The mind turns with these thoughts to the present moment. It cannot refuse to give itself, in some sort and in some measure, to the subject of "The Great Exhibition." It would not be fit that it should be indifferent to it; for it is no common sign of the time and ought to be morally judged.

It will be pleaded for; no doubt of it. It will be said, that it is designed to encourage brotherhood among the nations, and to promote the great business of social comfort and happiness as wide as the human family. But, I ask, are these God's objects? God has scattered the nations, and never proposes to gather them till He gathers them to Shiloh. God would have us strangers here, "content with such things as we have," without making it our business to increase or improve them. God would have us testify against the world in its present condition, and therefore neither flatter it, nor reconcile it to itself, nor glory in its capabilities. The Exhibition is therefore in full collision with the mind of God. Christ exposes the world; the Exhibition displays it. Christ would alarm it, and call it to a sense of judgment; the Exhibition makes it on better terms with itself than ever.

It is indeed a mighty advance in all the apostate reprobate principles of man. Efforts of a like kind we may be familiar with; but they are commonplace in comparison with this. As prophets speak, touching advance in the ways of evil, this is indeed "adding drunkenness to thirst."

I regard all admiration of it as a step in the way to "wonder after the beast." That will be but a further expression of the same mind; and how serious, if evangelical religion be sending its contributions to it or becoming one of the Exhibitors at it! Deep must be the infatuation. To tell the world one day what it is in God's esteem, and the next day to become one of the wonderers after its resources and capacities! Admiration like this savours of worship.

Like the old prophet at Bethel, when a saint is in a place or a position unwarranted by the call of God, the enemy will find easy occasion to use him. Still I own, when I think of it, it is to me wonderful that a Christian should find satisfaction in this thing. That it is an awful advance in the development of those evil principles which are to mark the day of Christendom's ripened iniquity, I have not the feast doubt.

The Lord of old scattered the nations. (See Gen. 11) This was judgment on a bold attempt of theirs, when they were of one speech and one language, to make themselves independent of God. And has He reversed that judgment? There is indeed an appointed time when it shall be reversed. Jerusalem shall be a centre, and Shiloh a gathering object. The nations will flock to Zion, there to see the King in His beauty. And none of them there, we may say, shall appear before the Lord empty. The tributes of all the lands shall beautify the place of God's sanctuary. The fruits of Midian and of Ephah shall be there, — gold and incense from Sheba, the flock of Kedar and the rams of Nebaioth, the glory of Lebanon, the forces of all the Gentiles. All shall flock there, like doves to their windows and kings shall minister there. Gold too shall be for brass, silver for iron, brass for wood, and iron for stones. All shall be for glory and beauty in the earth then. But this is still future. This is for "the world to come," after the Redeemer has come out of Zion, and turned away ungodliness from Jacob. See Isaiah 59 and Romans 11.

The reversing of the judgment of scattering at Babel is left for the kingdom of God at Jerusalem. He that scattered must gather. He is Lord of the nations. "The powers that be are ordained of God." It is His pleasure that they should be scattered nations still; for one universal monarchy is appointed of God for Jesus only — as it is written, "every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." "His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth."

The name of Jesus was, indeed, proposed as a gathering object in the day of Pentecost. Tongues were then cloven as they had been at Babel. But it was to reunite what had been already severed. But this proposal, like every other on God's part to man, was disappointed. The hard unbelieving heart did this. And what is man now proposing? He who refused God's proposal to gather to Jesus, in the power and presence of the Holy Ghost, is proposing to gather to himself. He will exalt himself as at Babel. He will be independent of God. He will be like the Most High. The beast will issue his decree on pain of death, his mark will be received on the forehead, and all the world will wonder after him. (Rev. 13) This is in the prospect of the world's history. He who will not let Christ be exalted will surely seek to exalt himself. And such an one is man.

Isaiah, anticipating in the Spirit the last days, warns the people of God against saying "a confederacy," in common with the world around them. (Isa. 8) And I ask myself and others, do we in deed and in faith receive these notices from the prophets? Do we judge that man will thus exalt himself and confederate — thus gather round himself? And if we treat these warnings of the character of the last days as divine, can we doubt from all we see and hear, that man has already begun to practise his hand in kindred attempts, in efforts which shall issue in all this?

The facilities and the speed in linking the nations one with another is now well known. It is used and gloried in. And what is this "Great Exhibition" but another trying of his skill in forwarding the main leading purpose of man's heart? No doubt it suits the spirit which is moving all this, to have it under the sanction of religion. When he can use for his own ends, nothing suits the devil better. He would fain have had Christ exalt Himself under the sanction of Psalm 91. And again, and again, he would have acknowledged Christ, had He allowed it — as the spirit of divination would have witnessed to Christ's servant, had he received it. (Acts 16) But this could not be. The beast, however, will have his false prophet. He will use religion for his own ends. But divine religions takes us only into God's ends. And it teaches us this (with the authority of the real intrinsic holiness of such a principle): we can have no fellowship with that against which we are called to testify. (Eph. 5: 11)

Nor can we say that the judgment we form on this matter is a small or an indifferent thing. It is not so. The subject is well fitted to exercise the judgment of a saint of God. It is eminently so, I believe. His mind generally will be much affected by his sense of this thing and his decision respecting it. The mind can become dull. The eye gets dim betimes. And if such a process as that be going on, the next attempt of the enemy finds us less prepared. And I ask, Is not all that dangerous, when delusions are multiplying as they are and as they will?

We are counselled to buy eye-salve of Christ, that we may see. That is something beyond or beside faith and confession of the gospel. Laodicea had the common faith, and in a sense boasted of it, but Laodicea wanted eye-salve. And sure I am that let this great shop of the world's ware expose what it may, that eye-salve is the very thing which will not, cannot be had there. It is the article which would detect the whole character of the place, and it could not therefore be bad there. It is a palace. Man is not enthroned there as God, it is true. Things among the children of men are not quite ripe for that yet. It is not a temple where man sits, showing himself as God. (2 Thess. 2) But man's works are displayed there. Man's art is enthroned there, and man expects to be admired and wondered at there, and thousands enter it (as another has observed) in the spirit of doing homage to man. It is a mirror in which the world is reflected in a thousand attractive forms, and the unworldly humbled, earth-rejected Jesus is forgotten. Jesus may be named there, it is true, but an unworldly Jesus is practically forgotten there.

It is indeed as I surely judge, solemnly, awfully significant. It is full of the spirit of the last days. This palace for man's productions to be gazed at, is but a stage before the temple for man himself to sit in — and admiration of it is getting a generation ready, morally ready, to "wonder after the beast." One is amazed that any Christian can find the least satisfaction in it.

This Exhibition (for it calls itself by that significant name) in its way shows all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. It does not hide this. It professes to do this. Like John Bunyan's Vanity Fair, there is the Italian row, and the German row, and the English row. It has human skill and resources in all variety and from all lands. It presents the kingdoms of the world, and "the glory of them." And who, I ask, was it that did this before? The Spirit led the Son of God into "the wilderness," a place of strangership and pilgrimage — but the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.

The world, according to the scriptures of God, is a lost and a judged thing, it is incapable of recovery. The word of God does not, in a single passage of it, warrant the thought that it can be advanced or cultivated for God. He has judged it — though in grace the judgment tarries, and the long-suffering of God is salvation. But the world is a system past all hope of recovery, till the judgment be executed. But confederacy is an attempt to fix the world in its present condition, to settle it, though it be in departure from God and enmity against Christ. This was the thought at Babel of old.

Separation of His own out of the world is God's way now. And this separation is the deepest and most thorough judgment that could be passed upon the world. This is a more complete judgment of it than by the waters of the flood, or by the plagues of Egypt, or by the sword of Joshua. The withdrawal or separation of all that God owns bespeaks final thoughts about the world, and not merely a purifying of it from present corruptions, as by the waters of Noah, in order to put it on a fresh trial. The trial of it is over, the judgment of it is pronounced, and the delay is but for the salvation of the elect. The attitude of the Church, that is, separation from the earth, and heavenly calling, tells us of the full moral condemnation of the course of things here. And thus the Church judges the world. Her position and calling does so.

The "servants" of the departed "nobleman" very well know that the country of the "citizens" has very great resources, and very great capabilities; and they know that in due season such will be both used and displayed. But they cannot allow this thought while that country is as it is now — stained with the blood of their rejected master. The cry, "We will not have this man to reign over us," is ever in their ears. And with that cry from the land, can they, in company with the "citizens " who raised it and still keep it up (for the character of the world, as we have said from scripture, is unalterably fixed), be occupied in investigating and producing the treasures of their country and the skill of its people, and glory in the thought of the common advancement?

They cannot, when alive to the character of the place where they are, and awake, as they should ever be, to the cry which followed the rejected Jesus as He left it — they cannot. The cup of the Lord's indignation is to go round the nations, and they must drink it. An awful reverse this will be from Belshazzar passing the wine among his courtiers and concubines in the cups of the Lord's house. And solemn it is in those nations feasting and praising the gods of gold, and of silver, of iron, of brass, and of wood while such an handwriting as that, is on the wall against them. If not on the walls of the palace, it is in the books of the prophets.. (Psalm 75; Jer. 25)

Incorruption, I can say, cannot inherit corruption, The spotless Jesus cannot hold an unpurged dominion. The woman of Revelation 17 glorifies herself, and lives deliciously in the earth during that very time in which the judgment of God is awaiting it; but the bride of Revelation 21 does not become manifested in the earth till it has been cleansed and is ready, not for the judgment of the Lord but for the presence of the glory.

There is infinite moral distance there. The world must be judged ere it can be adopted of God. The earth must be purified before it can be furnished and adorned for Him. This has been again and again transacted in the progress of the divine government. Noah, God's saint and representative, took the earth to rule and to enjoy it, but it had previously passed through the purifying of the flood. Israel, God's people and witnesses, took the land of Canaan to possess and enjoy it, but it had been judged by the sword of Joshua. And according to these types the earth is to be cleansed; out of the kingdom is to be taken all that offends and does iniquity ere Jesus will take the power.

Ornament and furniture well becomes it, for it is the Lord's footstool. Eden had not only its plants, and trees, and fruits, and flowers; but its gold, its bdellium, and its onyx stones. Solomon, in typical days of glory, trafficked in all desirable riches. And the millennial Jerusalem will receive all the treasures of the provinces. (Isaiah 60) But the present age is not millennial, the earth is not yet an extended Eden. Corruption is not judged; the things that offend and do iniquity are not taken away, nor is there any divine commission to that end. The field of tares is not to be cleansed now — it waits for the angels and the time of harvest. The saint submits to "the powers that be," knowing that "God" will stand in the congregation of them for judgment in due season (compare Rom. 13: 1 with Psalm 82: 1).

It is despite of the holiness of God, we may therefore say, to be presenting this evil world in its ornaments and furniture, in its resources and capabilities, as this Exhibition is doing. And it is also despite of the wrongs and sorrows of Christ. The citizens who have cast outside their city and country the blessed Son of God, are exhibiting what their country can produce, and what their hands can skilfully weave and fashion. I ask, could a servant of such a rejected Master, aid and encourage such things? Could he be a servant a moment beyond the time that he thus practically forgot his Lord's rejection here? He could not. He might, indeed, be a useful member of society, and serve his generation in their generation well; but a servant of Christ (properly speaking) he could not be if once he forgot the world's rejection of Christ; and acceptance of the invitation of the citizens (19) to come and seek to rejoice with them in the resources of their country and the skill of their people would at once be such forgetfulness.

The sorrow and the humbling of a saint is that he remembers the rejection of his Master so coldly and acts on that great fact so poorly. But to have it estranged from the soul so as to consent to take part with the citizens from one end of the world to the other, in a great confederated effort to display the world as a wealthy and desirable place — to do this in full and hearty fellowship with all, on the ground of the common humanity, is confounding light and darkness, Christ and Belial. The language of the whole thing is this — We will forget, at least for a season, the claims and the sorrows of Jesus, and have a holyday with the world that has rejected Him.

Has so little "eye-salve" been bought of Christ as to leave the saints in such a blinded condition of soul as this? "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." When Daniel and his companions entered the place of the Gentiles, they carried one purpose of heart with them, that they would not defile themselves with the king's meat (Dan. 1: 8). He knew not what this might cost him, but this was his purpose. He had bought this eye-salve of Christ, ere he stood among the uncircumcised. And in the strength of the Lord, he and his dear companions stood. The fiery furnace and the lion's den witness the victory of men strengthened by Christ. "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us." And so at Belshazzar's feast. Daniel entered it is a conqueror, as afterwards he entered the lion's den. He had no affinity with the feast — not a bit. He was, in the day of it, as we have seen, a separated man. But he was called to it, and he entered the banqueting hall as a conqueror. The king who was there promised to make him "the third ruler in the kingdom." "Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another," said the servant of Christ. He was as much a conqueror in the day of the feast, as he was in the day of the lion's den.

Noble attitude of a saint of God! Could such a man have accepted an invitation to the feast? Morally impossible. And "the eye-salve" which Christ had supplied him with, disclosed its further virtues, as he stood in that palace of the world's enjoyments. There was nothing in the language of the writing on the wall beyond the astrologers of Babylon more than beyond Daniel. Not so much, I might say. At least the words were as familiar to a Chaldean as to a Hebrew. But the wise men of Babylon, the scribes of Belshazzar's court and kingdom were not equal to interpret them. They were morally incapacitated. A single eye to Christ alone can do so to this day — the "eye-salve." If we test a thing by any test but Christ, we shall misinterpret it. It will appear fair, and good, and desirable, if we try it by its relationship to the welfare of society, or to the advancement of man and the world; but if we look at it in the light of a rejected Jesus, its bloom will be found to be corruption. Standing in the festive hall, Daniel traces the whole scene in Babylon at that hour in relation to God. He rehearses before Belshazzar God's way with Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar's way with God, and then Belshazzar's own hardness and infidel pride in defiance of Him who had wrought the wonders. This was Daniel's key to the writing — of course, I know, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. But still this was the prophet's moral apprehension of the king's feast. He judged it in reference to God — and what could the end be, but awful and sudden destruction? The writing must speak of judgment, and though the lords and the captains, the wives and the concubines, sport themselves in the king's hall.

"Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." It is blessed so to do, but it is hard. We judge of things in reference to ourselves, and not in reference to Christ. We think rather of the world's improvement than of His rejection. We talk of human capabilities rather than of human and incurable apostasy. We want the eye-salve, without which we cannot see — we cannot discover the feast, or read the writing on the wall.

The disciples wanted it on the Mount of Olives, as they looked on the Temple. They saw the building but not with the eye of Christ, not as anointed with the eye-salve. He had seen it, and all that surrounded it, with the eye of God; and costly as it was and beautiful beyond comparison, He had written the judgment of it; yea, on the very wall He had written the judgment of "that beautiful house." "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem — your house is left unto you desolate." This was writing with the same divine authority which had sentenced Belshazzar and his feast. But the disciples still eyed the beauty of the stones, and Jesus, in patient grace, but because of their demand, and unanointed eye, had to re-write the doom of that place: "Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left one stone upon another, which shall not be thrown down."

Sad to tell of it then, sad to see it now, sad to know, in our own worldly hearts, the secret of all this darkness. We may be sorry to find it thus among disciples, though prepared to get it plentifully among the children of men. The kings of the earth, the merchants, and the mariners bewail the fall of Babylon, and we wonder not. They judged Babylon in reference to themselves — they had lived deliciouslywith her. How could they have eye-salve to know her, and to see her with the mind of heaven? God "remembered her iniquities," but they remembered her as one "wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness." They therefore bewail, when heaven rejoices. The lords at the feast tremble, when heaven traces its doom. But sad it is that saints should be admiring the "costliness" which the mind of heaven has already judged.

What words in our ears, beloved, are all these — what writings under our eyes! O for the anointing which Christ has for His saints! O for power in our souls to judge the king's feast, the Gentiles' greatness, the world's advancement, the jubilee of Babylon, in the light of the rejection of the Son of God, in the hearing of that cry, "We will not have this man to reign over us. Then let us ask ourselves, if we have a pulse of affection or allegiance to Jesus, can we glory in this present moment with all its costliness and pleasures?

A Letter to a Bereaved Brother

A Letter to a Bereaved Brother.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend 1897 p. 207.

(The date of this letter is not known — probably it was 1865: it was found among the papers of the brother who received it, after his departure to be with Christ. The annexed lines were written by the bereaved parent.)

My dear John,

How much I charge myself for want of joy in God; and I have just come from looking at a scripture that may be able to fix this charge still more home upon the spirit; I mean the opening of Luke. What joy among the angels there; what joy on earth in the vessels filled by the Spirit there! The same illustration, indeed the one feature of the kingdom of God, "joy in the Holy Ghost." The angels appear together, or alone, as in the person of Gabriel. Witness that fervency of heart and openness of mouth which speaks eloquently the liberty and gladness of the soul. And the style of the filled vessels, whether it be Mary or Elizabeth, Zacharias or Simeon, or the company of shepherds who had been called into the fellowship of angels, equally tells us that all were satisfied; that if in heaven, so on earth, the presence of the power of "the kingdom of God" was expressing itself in "joy."

But let us come on to the fifth chapter, and there we shall find that not only angelic heavenly hosts and filled human vessels enter into this joy, but believing sinners likewise. They show it, and in their way they express it.

Look in this chapter at Peter and his companions, at the healed palsied man, at Levi, and then at all the children of the bride-chamber. Peter and his companions are at once able to rise up, leave all, and follow Jesus. The palsied man takes up his bed, and rising up before them all who stood around him goes home glorifying God. Levi at the word of power abandons what is everything to him in this world, and makes a feast, and such a feast as was exposing him to the rebuke of others; but though roughly, after the mind of his divine Master.

The children of the bride-chamber could not fast; they were afresh introduced to the Person in whom the fulness of joy dwells and reigns, and they could not fast; and the Bridegroom approves their joy.

Thus were poor believing sinners, as in Acts 13, "filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost." They take their place with angels and with filled vessels just to prove (it may be each in his different way) that the one feature of the kingdom of heaven is "joy in the Holy Ghost."

The poor cripple, carrying his bed with praises, is as sure and seasonable an expression of this as the angelic chorus over the fields of Bethlehem. Levi's feast tells this as distinctly as Mary's song or Simeon's oracle. All is joy after its own order and in its own way.

And this is the crowning, eternal thing: there is peace, there is entrance into grace or favour, there is hope, but the crowning experience in the praises of the soul is joy — "joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5: 11.)

It is joy that must account for Peter leaving his nets and Levi his receipt of custom. It is joy in the Bridegroom's presence that will give the feast in His absence. "The joy of the Lord is our strength."

You may have to watch against the tendency to mere sentiment in your soul. I have to do this very specially. Some others have a strong doctrinal tendency, if I may so speak; a rigid literal way of learning Christ. You and I and many others have to watch against the uneasiness and morbidness of mere feeling or sentiment. It may be a little of your human way or natural mind that may have expressed itself in the teaching to which you allude, and which in its measure was challenged. But surely we are entitled by the Word to speak of "delighting the divine mind." I have no doubt of it. Scripture is very bold in this way; for the apostle says, "Ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God." And again, "He that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of man."

The Father is revealed in the Epistle to the Ephesians as presenting the children to Himself, just as Christ, the Bridegroom, is revealed as presenting the Church to Himself (see Eph. 1 and Eph. 5), language which tells us the personal delight that the one takes in His family, and the other in His bride.

Surely I know the prevalency of sensible, creature influences, and how much the heart surrenders itself to their authority. But the sense of incapacity and the force of attraction will do much for the heart in binding it to Christ and detaching it from what would naturally be a great hindrance. How Bartimeus by reason of the first, and Zaccheus by reason of the second, clung to Jesus, though the multitudes were tempting them to yield. In the exercises of your spirit, dear brother, and in the anxieties and cares of your heart and hand, may His comforts refresh your soul. It is a struggling scene. "Who shall roll us away the stone?" But the resurrection will anticipate or close all the trial and the difficulty, as it did in Mark 16.

My love in the Lord to the dear brethren and to your dear wife, if returned.

Ever, dear John, Your affectionate Brother, J. G. Bellett.

2, Upper Pembroke Street, August 27th.

*  *  *

"Our precious child, Lord Jesus,

We know is now with Thee;

Nor would we wish him present,

E'en though that wish could be.

There in Thine arms enfolded,

His happiness entire

For one we loved so dearly,

What more could we desire?

"There in Thy blissful presence,

Waiting with thousands more

The time by God appointed,

When time shall be no more,

When Thou shalt come to gather,

Thy chosen ones to Thee

That glorious time of meeting

We long, O Lord, to see."

The Birth of Jesus

The Birth of Jesus.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 14, 1887, p. 216.

Look at one or two features with me in Luke 2; that exquisitely beautiful scripture has more in it, I well know. "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill toward men" (or good pleasure, or delight, in men). At the creation, God was providing for His own glory — for the blessing of the earth — for His peculiar joy and satisfaction in man. Now each of these great purposes is again answered in the new creation, which was laid in the Child of Bethlehem — answered too more abundantly and blessedly than in the old creation. God's "eternal power and Godhead" were to be seen in His works of old, He was glorified in them, as He sought to be, as Gen. 1 shows us. But all His glory is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. Nothing that can glorify Him in the full display of Himself is left unrevealed there. The display of God in creation was necessarily partial, but in the mystery of Jesus, the Child of Bethlehem, it is perfect and complete.*

*The above is printed as written, but the reader will remember that the glory of God was not displayed in the face of Jesus Christ until His ascension, nor did He take the place of, though He was, the second Man until His resurrection. — ED.

So blessing was the earth's portion at the creation. The creatures of God's hand enjoyed themselves in the good things He had provided for them. (Gen. 2.) But it was a blessing that might be forfeited, a peace that might be broken; but now the blessing and the peace, and the life which Jesus imparts, are infallible and for ever. The wolf and the lamb of the garden of Eden fall out, but the wolf and the lamb of the kingdom of Christ shall feed together. So the divine good pleasure in man at the creation was very blessed; the Lord God pondered with peculiar delight over His last, and chiefest, and crowning work, that image and likeness of Himself. But all this delight was changed; God repented that He had made man on the earth. (Gen. 6: 6.) But man recovered and set up in the Child of Bethlehem is man delighted in without possibility of such repentance, and delighted in so as no other object in all His creation (by its very nature) could awaken the same.

But still further on in this scripture, the shepherds are filled with fear in the presence of the glory, but the angel says to them, "Fear not." A multitude of the heavenly host then appear in the sight of the shepherds, but they do not fear, but rather go into the city with joy, repeat the tidings, and return with praise. So in the book of Revelation, John fears, but the voice of Christ restores him, and then through a series of most awful and terrific visions he never fears again. (See Rev. 1: 17, 18.) This is very happy — very happy for us — very happy to know that the presence of the glory need not alarm us. Nature fears, but the soul is emboldened by the voice that speaks from heaven; and thus are we taught that joy and praise, and not fear, become the presence of the glory, and the company of the heavenly multitudes, even if that glory and those hosts were to enshrine and surround us, as in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, with as full a surprise as they did that very night the Bethlehem shepherds.

J. G. B.

The Bride of the Lamb

The Bride of the Lamb.

J.G. Bellett.

Extracted from "Collectanea"

Subtitled, "Being some of the subjects considered at Leamington on 3rd June and four following days in the year 1839." Published unrevised in 1882 by J. S. Robertson, Edinburgh.

The Lamb's bride is distinctly the heavenly Jerusalem, the heavenly companion of her Lord, quite distinct from Messiah's kingdom. Jerusalem is the earthly counterpart of the Lamb's bride. In our thoughts about these things, I feel that we do not keep the earthly Zion distinctly in her right place. In tracing her history as the centre of Messiah's kingdom on the earth, we see that she is to be lifted up in a very especial way, to catch the glory of the heavenly bride. The earthly Zion will be lifted up, as a royal diadem in the hand of her God; glory will be her covering, and the nations will be coming up to worship at Jerusalem. Thus a heavenly link will be established between them. It will not be then, "the gospel of the grace of God;" but, the gospel of the glory of God. We can trace the bride from Genesis to Revelation, till we get her as the heavenly thing in glory, and that closes the book of God. In the description of the heavenly city, we find everything is perfect, everything that can delight the hearts of the saints. To take a right view of you, beloved, I should come forth from the counsels of God, and this would be a Pisgah view. It is blessed to get a Pisgah view, or glimpse of the glory. It was such a view as this that Paul had, when he exclaimed, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" etc. I judge, beloved, that the history of the family would not be a suitable conclusion to the whole book of God. I feel there are parts of God's Word that are passed over, and I do feel a sort of secret pride to vindicate the neglected parts of the Word of God, and to rescue them from the dishonour done to them. Often have I found that out of these parts have come especial sweetness; and that by being pressed upon, and bruised a little, have become the most precious grains in the granary of God. What we get in Rev. 22, is not the family taken home, but the manifestation in full of God's Work, — the law manifested man. The Lord Jesus Christ was the manifestation of the Father and the Son. But at the last, we shall have the manifestation of the Church's glory in connection with the earth. I see three pathways to glory. The first path of the Church, will be upward to meet her Lord in the air; her second, will be into the Father's house, there to be presented to the father, and there she will be married; her third path, will be to come forth with Jesus as her Lord and her husband, to enter with Him into the possession of His glory. The golden city, I judge to be the place of the kings and priests. It is the place out of which the light goeth forth; it is the dispensation of blessing. All that goes out of it will be blessing; all that comes into it will be blessing. The people walking it, will walk there with all the consciousness of their royal dignity, Now we never find God, when He brings out any new thing, sacrificing that which He had brought out before. We see Him taking with Him, as He travels on through each succeeding dispensation, carrying the light of that which is past into that which is to succeed it. And thus, beloved, will it be with us, as we travel with our Lord into the different paths of glory, we shall not leave anything behind. When we enter with Him into the golden city, we shall not lose any of the home joys of the Father's house. I was much struck with what our brother said, of the beautiful picture that is given to us in the little story of the prodigal of the mind of our Lord. As when the father brought his son, and presented him in his house, he adorned him with his best things; so, when the Lamb presents His bride before the world, there is no ornament that He has that He will not adorn her with; there is not a bit of glory and beauty of His own that He has not put on her. And yet it is not her beauty that He loves, so much as herself. He cared not for her rags and her defilement when He loved her. He sanctified and cleansed her, with the washing of water by the Word, because He loved her. I do believe this to be the deepest thought, beloved, that you can have. He loves you, not because of the grace you may have, but it is yourself. He calls us mother, sister, brother. His love for us engrosses every form of affection, also the nearest ties of relationship. He loved the Church, because He had ever put a bit of beauty on it. The whole scene closes with the Lamb getting up on the throne. When the people are got ready, and the scene is made ready, then you have the kingdom. As to the Jewish remnant, I believe they will pass through a great deal of preparatory discipline, and a great mass of Scripture is taken up with describing this preparation, so careful is God in His discipline of the Jews. In Psalm 44 we read, "For thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." In the first book of Samuel, we get Saul made the occasion of displacing David; in the second book, Absalom is used by God for the same purpose. In the first instance, we see David as a martyr, suffering for righteousness; in the second, as a penitent. And so it is in this way, under the type of David, that the remnant will be so sweetly exercised. When David was suffering under Saul, there was no comfort that his soul did not lay hold of, everything that could link his soul with God, knowing that he had a right to it all. But when suffering under Absalom for his sins, he knew he had no title to consolation, and put it all beyond him for the present, till the Lord had restored him to favour. Let us then be prepared for all this variety in the Psalms in some pleading righteousness, in some confessing sins, in some expressing confidence in God. If then we have the character of the remnant, let us have the testimony of a good conscience, and there is no height or depth that we shall not fathom, because we have confidence in God. It was in the time of David's sin and sorrow, that we see more of his confidence in God. If, like David, we have sinned, we must, like David, return to our first works, and travel up the mount in sackcloth. I believe the establishment of the kingdom is in preparing the remnant. We find the people getting ready by a process of most blessed discipline, and then we find the scene closed by the destruction of the enemies. The eye of the gazing disciples followed their Lord up in the air, but could not pierce the cloud; but in Psalm 110 David did pierce the cloud, and saw the Lord on the throne. When the disciples asked our Lord about the time in which He would restore again the kingdom to Israel, He said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." He instructed them in the character of His coming, though not about the time. "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Now in this Psalm we find it written, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." The structure of this little Psalm is quite perfect. The first verse carries Adam (man) up to the throne of God. Then we find God pledging Himself to Adonai, and telling him from 1-5 what is provided for him. In verse 5 it is written, "The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath," etc. "He shall drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall he lift up the head." He engages to remove every hindrance, and to bring Him into the inheritance. It is beautiful, the prophet looking up and seeing the Lord on the throne. Beloved, all we want in travelling up to these is unshod feet, and sure I am that there is no limit to the height we may get at. Get yourselves but unshod, and I say it is a base fear that would keep you from taking these journeys. We see that it is the Father who gives the title, and the Son takes the power. It is not that the Lord Jesus has now begun His judgment of His enemies. He has not yet put them under His feet; but He is waiting in grace, and the word now is, "The long-suffering of God is salvation."

As to the duration of Messiah's kingdom, those words in Psalm 72, "His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun," — I think the Spirit defines here how long His kingdom will continue, "as long as the sun,." that is, till the heaven and earth shall pass away, and God will be all in all. We are here, beloved, to help one another's joy in the discovery of truth; and though there may exist little differences in our views, they need not cause a ruffle.

Will the standing of the saints differ? The earthly saints will, I judge, walk in all the power of the recovered affections of human life; but this is not the character of joy that will be known by the Church. It is not that we undervalue natural affections now, — for it is a sin to be without them,  - but we are not henceforth to know any man after the flesh; but with the earthly people in the kingdom, there will be an enjoyment of all these affections. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. When the apostacy among the Jews came in, it was no longer, "Blessed art thou," etc., but rather, "Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." As to the fitting posture of the saints, I should say if we are children in the Father's house, let us encourage the affections and temper of children; if we are the bride, let us be waiting for the day of our espousals. The day of the wedded pair is not yet come; let us therefore be waiting for it; and, beloved, it is no pain to us in parting, to know that we may go forth and acquaint ourselves more with Jesus, and to show forth more of the attractive beauty of our Lord.

Joshua 3.

J. G. B.

THE Book of Genesis begins with man created in uprightness; then comes the fall; then God's remedy for that, in the promise of Jesus and in His election of a people. In Exodus, we see His actual deliverance of His elect out of Egypt. In Leviticus, there is the exhibition of the priestly character, and the institution of sacrifices to meet the daily need of His elect people. In Numbers, we get their trials and failure in the wilderness. In Deuteronomy, after the experience of Israel in the wilderness, we get God's relief for their failure in His own grace. It is beautiful to me to see God's grace witnessed to; and the order of these books to my soul is most blessed, as setting forth Moses, Aaron, and Joshua, in their typical character and action. Moses is represented as the redeemer and kinsman of the heir, doing his redemption work; but we want Joshua to redeem the inheritance, and bring the heir into it. This we find in the Book of Joshua, which therefore closes the action of God. Between the time of the redemption of the heir out of Egypt, and the redemption of the inheritance out of the hand of the Amorite, we have the wilderness; and it is here that we have sympathy with Israel, not in Egypt, because the blood had delivered them actually out of it. We do not know Canaan fully yet, because we are not yet brought into the land, and this gives us sympathy with Israel in the wilderness. The more we act as redeemed ones, the more we shall know this to be the wilderness, and be like Israel, who were taught that all their resources lay in the hands of the blessed God, and that when they get into the land they might not forget the wilderness. They learned the grace of God there, just meeting them in their necessity; and wonderful to say, they learned their own glory there, there they became the priests of the Lord. We, like them, beloved, are learning our joy in the wilderness, and teach our glory in this apostate world. We learn our glory by the Holy Ghost, our oneness with Christ, the hope that takes us up to heaven. There are two lessons that the wilderness has to teach us, — grace and glory; and our happiness is to learn them. When Israel came to the banks of Jordan, there was a new thing. Joshua had now to deliver the inheritance out of the hands of the enemy, and God meets him, with the gracious expression, "As I have been with Moses, so will I be with thee." It is a blessed thing for us that God only knows Himself as meeting our necessity. When Israel was in the furnace, God knew Himself in the burning bush; thus choosing the insignificant bush, which we might suppose would be easily trampled upon, or consumed, to prove His strength perfect in their weakness. It was unconsumed, and therefore they were unconsumed. When they wanted guidance, He knew Himself in the cloudy pillar going before, and directing them in their path. And when they came to Jericho, He knew Himself as the man of war. Thus we see God knowing Himself, and making Himself known, according to the circumstances of their need; and under whatever circumstances of danger or difficulty we may find ourselves, let us take for our especial comfort the assurance, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee;" so that we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto me." And whatever our necessity may be, we shall find Him in all His anxiousness proving that He has never exhausted His resources, or the faithfulness of His love. Now I see that the waters of Jordan must be parted, and this could not be done till the feet of the priests had touched the waters. The Red Sea was parted by the simple shepherd's rod of Moses; but another power must act on Jordan. It waits for the holy priesthood. And we, beloved, are just waiting for our own fulness, till the holy priesthood of the Son is completed, then shall the waters part hither and thither to let the Church of God go up into the Father's house. We do not know exactly what was Joshua's purpose in sending the spies into Canaan, but doubtless the Lord and Joshua were in co-operation here, though undoubtedly the Lord's thoughts overpassed Joshua's. It is the Lord's thoughts we have to do with. There was a little circumstance to be transacted before Israel could enter the land, before Jericho could be destroyed, and this was the saving of a poor sinner, the harlot Rahab. And it is for such work as this, the testifying of God's grace to sinners, that we are left here. Our proper joy is, waiting to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air; but if He tarries, to rejoice that the delay of our joy is to bring the grace of God to poor lost sinners, accounting that the long-suffering of God is salvation. Such should be the position of the saints, either looking for the approach of glory, or else for the outward path of testimony to sinners through the blood. It is written, that they came to a harlot's house named Rahab and lodged there. She had heard that the Lord was with Joshua; upon this her faith rested; so she received the men, disobeyed her king, and sent his messengers back with a lie. Rahab, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of her house. Surely fear may be a base root, but the Lord will not despise it. She confessed their hearts did melt with fear, when they heard of the Lord's dealings with Israel; wherefore she says, "I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token: and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. And the men answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when the Lord hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee." There was another reason for faith, she had faith in the word of the men, and she wished to save her family as well as herself. I know not what made Joshua choose these men, but certainly they were beautiful men; they were firm representatives of the camp of God; they needed not to go back to Joshua to know his mind; they carried the thoughts of Joshua with them, they knew his willingness to save. And we, like them, carry the thoughts of our Joshua with us, and are not afraid to pledge the grace of God to the poor sinner. Indeed, beloved, these were fine men, their graces were as large as their desires. "Our lives for yours," they answered. She binds the scarlet line on her window, and was just as safe in the devoted city of Jericho as she could have been in the heart of the camp, or under the banner of Joshua. The scarlet line to her was as the blood-sprinkled door, or the city of refuge; and as the blood of Jesus puts us to rest, and enables us to sit and sing of redemption, so it was with her, she knew no fear. Like Noah in the ark, she was now above the billows that were round her, and could think of the grace that had saved her. When the grace of God had just brought in the one that had faith, they entered the land. Now, beloved, these are the paths in which we should move; either waiting to be taken up, or going here and there seeking poor Rahabs, to tell them that there is salvation in Israel, pledging the mercy of God on His own eternal faithfulness. Oh may we in spirit know more of the upward path to glory, and of those outward paths of mercy and blessing to poor sinners.

The Knowledge of Our Present Standing.

J. G. B.

MANY of you here, beloved, have not perhaps been travelling up with us, into the knowledge of our present standing, and therefore up to the present time have perhaps been strangers to the conclusions we have been brought to. But being brought into a blessed oneness in the knowledge of the Father, and oneness with the Son, — one with Him who is on the throne, one with Him when He comes to be glorified in His saints,  - we have been led on in further discoveries of truth. If we have felt one time more a moment of interest than another, it is now that our minds are directed to the question, Whether we have a right to expect to be taken up into our glory without any intervening contingencies? The Word of God in this, as in everything else, is the only abiding rule for all our hearts and judgments; and here I would add a word, which is one of much comfort to my own soul, that we carry within us "the seed of God," and the wicked one toucheth it not. We carry also another character of glory with us, and that is, "the mind of Christ." Yet this is hindered by the flesh, and with the darkness that remaineth in us, therefore we have need to stir up one another. Still, through our want of perfect intelligence, we must expect to find differences of judgment. If I hear anything from the mouth of my brother which shakes my judgment, I must try it by the Word.

The whole dispensation may be said to be one great day, — "Knowing that it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." We do not understand our position in Christ aright, if we do not see that the presence of the Holy Ghost in us gives us the character of those who have entered on "the day." "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." Only look out, beloved, and you will see the light breaking through us, in the chamber windows, and it becomes us to arouse one another, knowing that the day draweth nigh. The Scriptures tell us that we are in the last times, and this gives us an identity with our brethren, though they lived hundreds of years ago. We find in 2 Tim. 2: 18, etc., that the error of "the resurrection" being "passed already," brought out that great house. The Church was getting down from her high standing, and acting as if she were entitled to use all the things around her, and to be kings already; and I believe the Lord will find the great house, with all its impure furniture, when He comes. The Book of the Revelation I judge to be a book of judgment. In this book we learn about God. In John we learn the Father. I do confess I love the atmosphere of my Father's house; I love to dwell on the Father's character: yet I believe we have also to learn God. The lesson given us now to learn, is the patience of Jesus Christ in God, and this is to be learned in communion with the Father; and what we have to do, beloved, is to look into such a revelation of Jesus Christ as God has given us. We find in what different ways the energy. of the Spirit led Jeremiah and Ezekiel. While Jeremiah was weeping among the ruins, we see Ezekiel standing above them; and when Jerusalem was no longer fit for the glory of God to rest on it, he sees with joy the cherubim departing from it, and ascending up to the throne in the temple above. In the Book of Revelation I judge, beloved, that we get not the weeping Jeremiah, but the triumphs of Ezekiel. In Rev. 1 we get our Lord as the Priest in the sanctuary, walking among the candlesticks, not with the golden oil, but with the snuffers, to see if they will burn, and if not, to judge them. Having put the candlesticks on their responsibility, He comes and says to them, "Give me an account of your stewardship;" or as when God said, "Adam, where art thou?" So I believe the candlesticks have been tried; they could not answer the challenge, and therefore were judged unworthy of their place. What should we do in such a position? We should humble ourselves, and not rejoice as if all were right. And though we may see here and there a little to be thankful for, yet to feel that the Church is a broken thing. Revelation 4 and 5 form a preface to the second scene of judgment. In chapter 4 I judge we get the throne of Him to whom all, by right of creation, belongs. We see the rainbow, which was the sign of God's covenant with the earth, round about the throne. "Out of the throne proceeded lightnings, and thunderings, and voices."  - In Revelation 6, 7, and 8 we have the power by which this is to be effected. Let us now turn for a little to Psalms 23 and 24, which, I believe, bear the same relation to each other as the Gospel of John does to the Book of Revelation. Psalm 23 beautifully harmonises with the Gospel by John, and describes the Shepherd by the way of goodness and mercy leading up the Church into the Father's house. Psalm 24 is altogether of another character, and represents the Church as led up into the holy hill, or the golden city. The question is, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place?" Who shall be found worthy to take the place of dominion on the earth that Adam forfeited? It was God's good pleasure to set up an image of Himself in Adam, and He has set it up again in Christ. We find a question very similar to this in Rev. 5: 2, "Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?" Who shall stand as the image of the blessed Creator on the earth? just as John's Gospel leads us up to the Father's house, so I judge that the Book of Revelation prepares the way of the Church from the Father's house into the golden city. It is that which I believe governs the whole of the actions of this book, the inheritance got out of the hand of the enemy, and made ready for the Church to enter upon and shine forth in all the glory of the golden city. In chapter 4, in the elders, we get ourselves. Then the cherubims, these we always see attendant upon the pleasure of God, always fulfilling His mind and will. We see them executors of His wrath in the Garden of Eden, standing with the flaming sword. Again we see them shadowing the mercy-seat. These cherubims were made out of the matter of the mercy-seat, showing their reflection of the mind of Him who sat between the cherubims, as it were delighting and searching into the secrets of the mercy-seat. We get them again in Ezekiel. The temple was now become a defiled place, where the Spirit of God could find no rest, and what do we find the cherubims doing? Not, as before, delighting in the mercy-seat, but doing His holy pleasure, and stretching out their wings to throw over the devoted city. The Lord has two thoughts of glory for His saints, — the first is, that they should be co-heirs with the Son; the second is their entering into the place of true joy and glory; and then we shall see the angels opening their ranks to let once defiled sinners go in, and they must surround us, as they now surround the Lamb. The Lord's title to the kingdom we see in chapter 5 is settled in heaven, and. the next thing is, the action of the Lord. He takes the book. We find two voices owning the power as lodged in Jesus, and saying that all power is given unto Him in heaven and in earth. But the moment that God owns it, all will be compelled to own it too. And this is the way that God settles everything in righteousness. The Church is now made the witness for the displaying of this truth, as we find Paul writing to the Ephesian Church in Eph. 3: 10, "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God." In Revelation 5 I see the angels having learned the lesson, and following in. the train of the Church. When the four living creatures, and four and twenty elders, sing the new song, saying, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made them unto our God kings and priests," etc., then the angels join, saying, with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." I believe the Church to be taken up at some undefined moment between Revelation 3 and 4. When we perceive the truth of the martyred remnant among the Jews, we get a key to much that would be otherwise unintelligible to us. The Church, I believe, to be taken out of all the transactions in judgment of this book after the third chapter. The Church of God, beloved, is a very tender and delicate plant, and we should take care how we mix her up with the political revolutions of this world. When we speak of her, it should be in a very gentle, delicate way. We never find the elders stepping down to the earth, but always surrounding the throne; though we see them at times coming forth in peculiar expressions of their joy, as in Revelation 7, when they beheld the multitude redeemed with the blood of the Lamb. We get them again in Revelation 11 coming forward to express their joy when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, saying, "We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned." And again, in Revelation 19, was heard the voice as of a great multitude, coming out of the throne, saying, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." Thus we find that while the elders are always happy, yet there are times when they know particular elevations of joy; and this, beloved, is very sweet, they are always round the throne engaged in this joy, and in that intelligence. I judge the Revelation to be like the Book of Joshua, — taking the inheritance out of the hand of the enemy, and this goes on from chapter 6 to 19. The Lord will not take up Israel till the fulness of the Gentiles is come in. Then we get the judgment of the earth. I do not believe that the Church will have anything to do with this judgment on the earth, but the Jews, as it is written, "In Judah were the instruments of his power." I believe we get in Enoch and Noah types of the Church and Israel; while Noah was preserved through the judgment, I find Enoch was taken out of it. In the opening of chapter 6, I believe we are standing much in the same position as the disciples were in Acts 1, for signs to Jerusalem. The seals govern the action of the whole book, and I believe an answer to the disciples' question in Matt. 24: 3, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and the end of the age?" This chapter of Matthew, I believe, the Church has nothing to do with. We do not find the mercy of God exhausted till the end of the Book of Joshua, and so it is not till we get to the Revelation that we see the Church as the heir, the bride of the Lamb, taken up into the golden city. I believe this book to be just the Joshua of the New Testament. In chapter 19 we have the marriage of the Lamb. I judge the marriage takes place in the Father's house. No doubt He will by and by come down to the earth, but that is not what we have to do with, beloved. We look for His touching the air, and for our being caught up to meet Him; the trumpet will sound, not for our meeting Him in Jerusalem, but in the air. "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye maybe also" (John 14: 2-3). And do not we know that He went to the Father's house? I see that there are two pathways to glory, — first, when the Lord comes to meet us to receive us to Himself; the second, when we travel with Him from the Father's house into the golden city. Thus, in the same way, we see our Lord Himself making a pause after His resurrection, before he ascended to the Father. In Revelation 19 we first get the marriage, and then the Church preparing to take her stand in the glory. In Revelation 20 we find her in the kingdom, as it is written, "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." They shall be priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. When the kingdom comes, the ladder will take its proper place, the top will be set in heaven, the bottom of it on the earth, then will be seen the heavens open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. Do you not delight, beloved, in the thought of all submitting to the sceptre of righteousness in the hands of "the Beloved?" It is not only the throne of God, as in chapter 4, but here it is the throne of God and the Lamb. All is now contributing to prepare the throne, not for Him who created all things, but also for the Lamb. Then it will be universally declared who is the worthy one; then will be sung that song of triumph and of joy, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in." Above everything, beloved, let our hearts be right with the promises of God. Let it be our joy to be for ever and ever by the side of Him, who gave up everything for the love that he had to the Church. It is to such a one that we are betrothed. The time of the marriage is not yet come; this is the time of our betrothal, the season in which we may be occupied in learning one another, in learning all the devoted ways of that love to get us for Himself. It is not that we are the bride of a glorious King, but we are nothing less than this, "The Lamb's bride;" and may our hearts, beloved, be unceasingly breaking out, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly."

Deuteronomy 26 - 34.

J. G. B.

THERE is one thing we must remember in God's dealings with His people, that is, that we have reached God. We are far gone, and upon the ground of this the gospel comes in to tell us what God is, beloved; and on our part, the thing to be proved by us is, that we have reached God. We find that, having God, we have everything, a fulness to supply every emergency. What thought had a Sadducee of God? No right thought at all, beloved. So the Grecians at Corinth (1 Cor. 15), "Some have not the knowledge of God, I speak this to your shame." When the Apostle was expressing the state of the Gentiles in Ephesus, it was "without God and without hope in the world;" and in 2 Thess, 1, "them that know not God." There, again, he charges them with simple abstract atheism; and why so? Because the gospel is such a provision for all man's necessities, that it brings in God; and where does His glory shine, but in the face of Jesus Christ? so that whosoever does not believe the gospel, rejects God. And these two are so intimately connected, that He cannot reveal Himself without revealing the ground of our hope. God is love, and it must be so. The gospel comes, not to bring ourselves to our view, but to bring God; and faith, whether it be weak or strong, gets this blessing. God forbid that anything should be said that could check the poorest and weakest saint! What does faith do? Why, it just presents God to Himself, just presents to God His own remedy, nothing of ours. Christ crucified and Christ risen was preached to Adam, and Abel believed it; and all religion in the family of God has been the same from that day to this; and God will own no principle of religion but this, from that day to the endless ages of eternity. But Cain would not take God's remedy, but chose his own; Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness; and when Abraham in Gen. 16 had fallen into Cain's state, the Lord reveals Himself to him in chapter 18, "Walk before Me, and be thou perfect." And what do we find? He falls upon his face and worships God. And what can we do, beloved, but fall down before God, and tell Him what He is Himself; and nothing will give the soul a graceful ease in its movements towards God, but this simplicity of faith. In delivering Israel, the Lord only knew Himself, and in His own grace delivered them; but at Mount Sinai we find Cain-work again, but still God rises above it; and however the people throw themselves into the fires of Sinai, He cannot but act in grace. In connection with these things, in Deut. 26: 1-11, we see the covenant that put God and the people together. Now, beloved, nothing can exceed the blessedness of that; there is not a religion of grace under the sun but this. The principle of every religion of human nature is, "Thou art a hard and austere master;" but here are the people worshipping God, by bringing the full basket to present to Him of what He had given them. And on the same principle, beloved, we come presenting Jesus to God; it is not the first-fruits of the land, it is only to come acknowledging "a Syrian, ready to perish, was my father," in the simple consciousness of His love, and that is worship. Beloved, I know no other principle of worship than this, to bring the full basket, to say "a Syrian, ready to perish, was my father;" but Thou hast brought me to Jesus, Thou hast brought me to a land flowing with milk and honey, Thou hast given me Jesus. And now as to the verses following this, — Deut. 26: 12-15, — we must come, as Israel did, with clean hands to compass His altar, we must not regard iniquity in our hearts — (Pilate washed his hands, but there was iniquity in his heart); we must be able to say, as Israel did then, "Look down from Thy holy habitation," Deut. 27. From henceforth to the close of the book, we have a beautiful exhibition of what God is; and oh! beloved, how blessed it is to know that we have reached God, and done with ourselves. Well now, we have the ten words inscribed upon the tables of stone; but where are they put, beloved? They are put at once, without trial, upon the mount of curse, and it comes as a warning that the result of the trial must be a curse; as the Apostle says, "All that are under the law are under the curse." But the Lord has taken His stand (in principle, I mean, of course) upon Mount Gerizim. He speaks of nothing but grace, of nothing but blessing. In Heb. 2, while the law was the thing ministered, let the angels take it, let Moses take it; but when it is grace, the Son takes it, the Spirit bears witness to it. Where does the law come from? from His hand; but the gospel comes from the depth of the heart of God. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, hath declared it; and while my conscience stands in company with the throne of God, my heart, my affections, stand in company with the bosom of the Father. Deut. 28 was just Gerizim and Ebal in another style. In Deut. 29, and onward to 32, there is a great transition. It is the thoughts of God, as it were, passing from the law unto grace, and it gleams forth here and there, but not distinctly. It was an awkward thing to get grace into the hands of the Legislator, but we do here and there get faint traces of it. The pillar of the cloud was one of the expressions of the grace of Him who was carrying them through the desert; it stood in company with the manna, the ark of the testimony, and all that was the expression of grace. In the song of Moses, mercy rejoices against judgment; but there is another note to be heard, beloved. In verses 42 and 43, the Lord shows what His plan is. Let Moses and the law go to Mount Ebal, He takes His place upon Mount Gerizim with the pillar of cloud for His companion. The gospel, beloved, is God dispensing Himself, giving Himself In Deut. 33, the earthly people are brought into the inheritance and blessed. If you travel through this 33rd of Deuteronomy, it is all blessing. Compare this with Genesis 49; Dan has recovered his place, so to speak, he has leaped back from Mount Ebal to Mount Gerizim; the fruit of this song, mercy rejoicing, against judgment. Did you ever mark in that lovely song of Hannah, beloved, it is the Lord that is the theme of her song? So here, so Samuel, it is Ebenezer, it is a witness to the Lord; and so it will be to eternity, beloved. You may enjoy the glory you are brought into, but you will celebrate nothing but the blood that brings you there. In the last chapter, we get Moses, who lost the land, who died on the other side Jordan, brought up to an elevation beyond all that passed the banks of Jordan. He is taken up as the representative of the heavenly calling of the Church. It was his own want of faith that kept him back, but out of the eater we find meat brought forth. He lost the earth, it is true, but he got the heavenly glory. May the breathing of our hearts be, "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee." Then, though flesh and heart fail, we may still say, "God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."

Extracted from "Collectanea"

Subtitled, "Being some of the subjects considered at Leamington on 3rd June and four following days in the year 1839." Published unrevised in 1882 by J. S. Robertson, Edinburgh.

Expositions were recorded of the ministry of J. N. D., J. G. B., & G. V. W.

The Heavenly Calling Foreshown

The Heavenly Calling Foreshown.

J. G. Bellett.

from Musings on Scripture, Vol. 1.

The apostle addresses his brethren in Christ as "partakers of the heavenly calling" (Heb. 3: 1). This calling, in another scripture, is styled "the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3: 14). And again, it is spoken of as the calling of the Father of glory (Eph. 1: 17, 18). In those who are the subjects of it God is to show in the ages to come the exceeding riches of His grace (Eph. 2: 17); and in them also the Lord is to be chiefly admired in the day of the presence of His power, though that is to be a day in which all His works shall praise Him, a day of clouds of witnesses to His glory both in heaven and earth (2 Thess. 1: 10, 11).

This participation of the heavenly calling, thus bestowed on the saints, was not made known in other ages as it is now revealed. For it is only to the church that God has abounded in "all wisdom and prudence;" unto the saints only it is that "he hath made known the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself" (Eph. 1: 8, 9). In a wondrous manner it is for them to testify, "We have the mind of Christ." His deep things God has revealed to them by His Spirit (1 Cor. 2: 10). The mystery of God [and of the Father, and of Christ]. it is for them, with full assurance of understanding, to acknowledge (Col. 2: 2). And their title to all this high endowment stands in this — the Son is their prophet. They have been spoken to by the Son, who is "the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of his person;" and "All things," says the Son, "that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you" (John 15: 15). Israel never stood in such privilege as this, God, in sundry measures and in diverse manners, spake to them by His prophets; but their prophets were not the Son, they came not from the bosom of the Father. They were of the earth, and spake of the earth (John 3: 31); for Israel were God's earthly people, having their citizenship and their place here. But the saints, or the church,* are the heavenly family, and their Prophet is therefore He who has come from heaven, and testified what He has seen and heard there. He who was "full of truth" dwelt among us — the Son from the bosom declared the Father, and gave us an understanding to know Him (1 John 5: 20). In Him and by Him the blessed God is revealed, for we get "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4: 6).

*The distinction between Israel and the church, the one being the earthly people, the other the heavenly, is here rather assumed than proved. [The writer a little confounds "the mystery" with the heavenly calling. — ED.]

The prophets, who spoke of the earth, have given us many a notice of the earthly glory of the Lord, and sweet and gracious and wondrous is the intelligence. Isaiah speaks of Jehovah's reign in Mount Zion, and before His ancients gloriously (Isa. 24: 23). Ezekiel, who first saw the Son of man in the glory above the firmament, afterwards saw the same glory returned to the earthly city of the great King (Ezek. 43: 1, 2). And Daniel is very especially the witness of the glory of Christ in the earth, taking a kingdom and dominion here. Indeed the prophets generally could speak of Christ as the King of Israel, and as such the God of the whole earth also, the heathen being given to Him for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. But all this, though to the glory of the Son, was of the earth still. The circumstances in which all this glory is to be revealed must be earthly. But the Gentiles, being "fellow-heirs, and of the same body," was a mystery of which it was not given to the prophets to speak particularly. Co-heirship of God with Jesus the Lord — spiritual blessings in the heavenlies — the sanctified and Sanctifier being all of one — the church as the body of Christ and the fulness of Him that filleth all in all — these are "the heavenly things" which the Son of man alone has revealed, for He alone came down from heaven, and alone has thus ascended into heaven (John 3: 13).

It is not that there is any new purpose with God; no; but there are due seasons and appointed ministries for the manifestation of His purposes. The church is nothing new as to purpose, but new as to manifestation. Jesus, the Messiah on the earth, was the proper expectation of Israel; and therefore the songs which either ushered in, or accompanied the birth of the Lord, welcoming Him to the earth, were all in celebration of good things to Israel, and announced nothing heavenly. Neither indeed did the resurrection of the Lord, any more than His birth, necessarily take Him beyond earthly glory and Jewish hopes. For the earthly people have their interest in Messiah's resurrection as well as the church. Their prophets foretold it, and the promise, grounded on resurrection, was that to which the twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hoped to come (Acts 26: 6-9). The hopes of David's throne are identified with the resurrection (Acts 2: 30). It is the resurrection that makes David's mercies sure mercies (Acts 13: 34). And therefore, when the death and resurrection of the Lord were accomplished at Jerusalem, it was to Israel that the testimony was first sent. And even more than this: the ascension did not at once take the Lord out of Jewish connection, for it put Him into possession of the gifts which He was to receive for the rebellious, that is, Israel, and which under the new covenant He is to give to Israel. And we are taught that it is from His ascension-place that He is to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins (Acts 5: 31). But the ascending into heaven after Him, and not waiting here on earth for His return, is beyond all Jewish hopes — that is, the now, or the heavenly, calling. Mansions in the Father's house, and the special joys and honours of the saints, as the brethren of the Son of God, were before left in a mystery. But such is the high calling to which the church is called, and it is made known to the saints by the Spirit sent down from the Son, thus ascended into heavenly glory, and when He had been rejected in His resurrection by His earthly people Israel. Till then the time had not come, the ministry had not been prepared, for the revelation of this calling.

But though it were thus, as to express revelation, kept secret, yet from the beginning God had been pleased to signify and shadow it, and the saints are now able, in the light of the full revelation of it, — to trace out and read such signs and shadows. They see themselves thus as the heavenly family kept in remembrance, even in the midst of the Lord's dealings with the earth and the earthly people.

And I will not refrain from stating here what has lately impressed my own soul with some fresh comfort — that, amid the increasing anxiety of these times, and the deepening of the world's darkness around us, the light of our God shines pure and steady as ever. This is comfort. The pillar was the same to Israel through whatever part of the desert they passed: that land of the shadow of death might have been gloomier to them in some stages of their wondrous march than in others; but the pillar of God was the same. On it went, the same steady, sure, unvarying guide. It gathered none of the gloom of the desert around it; and I can believe that the more lonely the wilderness became to them, the more steadily did Israel eye it as their abiding companion and friend. And so now with us, beloved. The way to the saint may become lonely, very lonely, but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. There is no darkness there, no uncertainty there. This would be our sorrow indeed, if any of the present darkness of which we complain were in Jesus; but it cannot be there. The candle shines on the candlestick; God has not put it. under a bushel; it gives light as ever, to all that come in. The darkness is only in the world that surrounds us, and in the evil eye of our own body (Luke 11: 33-36). And therefore, though the night be dark and lonely, there is light to guide us and to cheer us, and the simple obedient saint finds it so (2 Peter 1: 19), The foundations may be destroyed, but the righteous still know what to do, for the light of God remains undimmed (Luke 11: 36). This, brethren, is our comfort — the word of our God endureth for ever; and may the gracious hand that gave it to us ever control and guide us in using it!

It needs not to be observed, that the different typical persons in scripture set forth the Lord only in certain features of His glory. No one stands out as a full exhibition of Him. Indeed the limited sphere in which they severally moved, under the hand of God, would allow of nothing more than this. In each of them we may get traces of Jesus, but that is all; one after another takes up the wondrous tale, but the half is not told us (1 Kings 10: 7). But still we learn, and learn much from them; and something, as I would now show of the deep things of God, which the Spirit alone searches out, and which God has revealed to us by the Spirit, are made known, as in figure, by them.

In the union of Adam and Eve, and in the law of marriage, in Eden, the oneness of Christ, and the church was from the beginning declared. In the dominion of all things there, Eve being the associate of Adam in his lordship, the joint inheritance of all things on earth by the Lord and His saints was set forth. In the structure and combination of the parts of the tabernacle, much of the same purpose of God was exhibited. The holy places, with the outer courts, were all according to heavenly patterns, presenting the union, and yet distinctness, of the heavens and the earth; as that same union and distinctness had been previously revealed in the vision of the exiled patriarch of the ladder set up on the earth, but. whose top reached to heaven? And much like this will be seen in the structure and combination of certain typical persons: for in the laying of them together, the one after the other, as the parts of the tabernacle, it will be found that that order of heavenly and earthly things, which in the end is to be displayed, has from the beginning been foreshown. Of this I have lately been strongly assured. And indeed it is the duty of the saints, as it should be their delight (ever looking to God for wisdom) to discern the ways of God under His works — to see His mind and purpose under the mouldings and fashionings of His hand — to speak of "the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world" (1 Cor. 2: 7).

I would notice this combination of typical persons first in Enoch and Noah.

The earth at the first was given to Adam; "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the face of the earth" (Gen. 1: 28). But in his hand the earth became corrupt, and thus corrupted it passed into the. possession of Cain and his family, as will be seen in Genesis 4. They buy, they sell, they plant, they build, they marry and are given in marriage. They stamp their own. name upon the earth, and furnish it with all that was good and pleasant in the judgment of the flesh. They were "the world" of that day, and "the things that are in the world" they loved and cultivated. But in the midst of this Cain-earth there was gathered from Seth (appointed to Eve instead of Abel, whom Cain slew) a household of faith, who "call upon the name of the Lord" (Gen. 4: 26). This is their only record. The world knew them not, for they were not of it. They died, generation after generation (Gen. 5). They had no inheritance here; they toiled at the cursed ground, as submitting to God's righteous ordinance, and only looked for a new earth, and a future rest (Gen. 5: 29). They lived by faith, and they died in hope; of whom it may be said, "the world was not worthy." They were the heavenly family — they acknowledged God in the midst of that world which had willingly estranged itself from His presence to seek out its own inventions.

But in process of time they also corrupted themselves, and the Lord had to testify of their apostasy and loss of heavenly character, and to say of them (as giving them up), "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." "Then did it repent him that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart, for he saw that the wickedness of man was great, and that all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth" (Gen. 6: 18).

But ere this Enoch had been found among them faithful to his high calling. In the power of the heavenly hope of this Seth-household, "he walked with God," and, according to the end of that hope, "God took him." "By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." This is a simple record of this holy and honoured patriarch; but it is large enough to warrant us to say that in His day Enoch was the witness of ascension glory and of the heavenly calling: in him death was abolished, and life and immortality were for a passing moment brought to light; he was not found on earth, for God had taken him. The mansions in the Father's house, as it were, were already prepared, and he was seated in them; and the saints were seen in him as caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

And, in perfect character with all this, Enoch prophesied of the coming of the Lord with His saints to the judgment of the earth. Delivered in spirit out of the evil of the world, he was delivered afterwards in person out of the judgment of it; and he beheld from his elevation — like Abraham in such a case (Gen. 19: 23) the smoke of the country going up as the smoke of a furnace. "Behold the Lord cometh," said Enoch, "with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment" (Jude 14, 15).

But Noah, on the other hand, is not taken away from the judgment, but carried safely through it. The same hand which had raised Enoch out of it conducts Noah through it (Heb. 11: 6, 7). He prepared an ark to the saving of his house; the waters rose around him, wave upon wave; the end of all flesh was shown, to him, but he lived to rise up the inheritor of a new earth, and with him a covenant that to this day establishes the earth was made, and God set His bow in the cloud as a token of it.

But this was not Enoch glory. Noah was left on the earth still. God remembered Noah assuredly, but it was only to open the door of the ark, and lot him forth upon the earth again. He was found here again; for God had not translated but only preserved him. His faith carried him through the flood into a new world, while Enoch was carried above it up to God.

And such are the divers glories of the church and of Israel; such, the several callings of the heavenly and the earthly families; such, the children of the resurrection and the children of the circumcision; and such, too, are the several seasons ordained for the revelation of these glories. Enoch came before Noah. Enoch was translated to heaven before Noah condemned the old world, and inherited the new. So will the saints be caught up to meet the Lord in the air first, and then will come the judgment of the nations and the manifestation of the Lord in His Noah character, in His glory of earthly rule and inheritance.*

*I would here observe that our blessed Lord speaks of Noah and not of Enoch, in His prophecy in Matthew 24, and this He does because He was the minister of the circumcision, the prophet of Israel. And Noah being thus His theme, we have at once the right interpretation of the prophecy, and we see that the taking, which the Lord speaks of in it, is a taking to judgment, as of the antediluvian apostates, and the leaving means a leaving for blessing, as of Noah and his household; and indeed the Lord tells us so Himself (see ver. 39). But had He in this prophecy been speaking of the church, He would have taken Enoch as His theme, and not Noah; and then the leaving would have been a leaving for judgment, as of the corrupters of the earth who survived Enoch, and the taking would have been a taking to glory as of Enoch himself.

But this Noah-earth quickly became corrupt, as the Adam-earth had before it; and within a little while "the children of men" became again vain in their imaginations, following the pride and naughtiness of their hearts to the very full. Flesh again proved itself to be flesh. Man was the same still, the waters of the flood had not cleansed him, but, big with the old desire to be as God, "the children of men" were now for making themselves a name, and building themselves a city and a tower, whose top should reach unto heaven" (Gen. 11)

But, as before in the person of Seth, the Lord had raised up a heavenly man in the midst of the Cain-world, so now did the God of glory raise up, in the person of Abraham, another heavenly man in the midst of this Noah-world. Government of the earth had been given to Noah, but Abraham is called away from the earth, away from his country, his kindred, and his father's house to walk with God; like Seth or Enoch, a stranger and sojourner here. Abraham, like them before him, got no part in this corrupted earth. God gave him none inheritance in it, "no, not so much as to set his foot on." His tent and his altar accompanied him wherever he went, and marked him as a stranger on the earth with God. He had, in the character of his calling, done with the world. He dwelt here with his children in tabernacles, and died in faith, desiring a heavenly country. He took no part "with the children of men" in their building of cities, and getting themselves a name; but he looked for a city whose builder was God, and waited, according to promise, to have his name made great by Jehovah. But God was eminently with him; his candle, as Job speaks, shined upon his head, and wondrously and blessedly indeed may it be said, the secret of God was upon his tabernacle. This was all his present glory, but it was holy glory. The Lord told him of His ways, and promised him everything. By the hand of Melchizedek heavenly and earthly treasures were pledged to him, and by the word of the Lord heavenly as well as earthly mysteries were made known to him. He was to be the heir of the world, and the father of many nations. He was admitted to the divine presence, and walked on earth as "the friend of God." The judgment of the world was made to pass before him, but it did not come nigh unto him, only with his eyes did he behold and see the reward of the wicked. The smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace, while Abraham looked down from on high upon it, and that too from the very place where he had "stood before the Lord," that is, where he had been in intercession with the Lord (Gen. 19: 27), and which ever is, in principle and character, heaven itself.

He was thus, like Enoch, the elect one — drawn out from the world before the judgment came. In the crisis of the earth he had nothing to do. But Lot, his kinsman, his inferior and younger kinsman, is left as a remnant in the world after the judgment. He was sent, with sure purpose of love, out of the midst of the overthrow, when God overthrew the city of destruction, in the which he dwelt; but he did not stand on Abraham's elevation. He and Abraham never met afterwards; for he was found, as it were, on the earth still, the remnant that survived the judgment, like Noah before him, while Abraham was above it and out of it altogether, like Enoch.*

*I have been struck by this, that it is never by the communications of angels that Abraham is instructed or helped, but immediately by the Lord Himself, or, which is as the same, by the angel of the Lord, whereas the communication with Lot is only through angels. Thus, in the matter of the destruction of Sodom, we read that it was the Lord who appeared to Abraham (Gen. 18: 11-17), and it was the Lord who spake unto Abraham. but it was only two angels that visited Lot. This, to me, clearly marks the heavens and the earth, as distinguished in the persons of Abraham and Lot.

Such knowledge of the mystery of God's will, purposed in Himself from the beginning, and to be manifested in the dispensation of the fulness of times, by the gathering of all things, whether in heaven or on earth, in one, even in Christ, was thus in types foreshown to, and left among, the patriarchs, whether before or after the flood. And just at the beginning of the Lord's subsequent dealings with that, nation which He had chosen for His own out of the earth, we may find the same purpose again foreshown — I mean in the combined types of Moses and Joshua.

Moses came from Egypt through the wilderness; as it is written of him, "This was he that was in the church in the wilderness" (Acts 7: 38). He stood on the borders of the land of promise, which was destined soon to be God's world, or that part of the earth which God was about to separate to Himself. But Moses was to go no further. There was to be nothing in this world for Moses but the wilderness land a sight of Canaan. The earth to him was to be no Canaan. His foot was never to tread a land flowing with milk and honey. "Die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people," said the Lord to him (Deut. 32: 50). And Moses did so. He went up from the plain of Moab unto the mount of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, and died there. But did he die the death of all men? Died Moses as a fool dieth? No, it was the Lord Himself who put him asleep; the dead may bury the dead, but the Lord buried Moses. "He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor, but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day" (Deut. 34: 6). Though He showed His care in another way, yet it was equal care for the body of Moses as had been shown, for that of Enoch, and because they were to be equally children of the resurrection. Some sleep, but they which are alive and remain shall not prevent them which are asleep, but all shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4: 15-17). The earth does not, to this day, own the body of Moses. Like others, it is true, it has returned dust to dust, but the Lord Himself buried it with sure and certain purpose of giving it a resurrection unto glory. It was not the power of death that had oppressed Moses. Though a hundred and twenty years old, his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. The Lord could have said of him (as of all the children of the resurrection), "If I will that he tarry till I come;" for death is abolished to them all. But He was otherwise minded, and graciously so; for in Moses He has given to all those who may be called to "sleep in Jesus" a sure pledge that their bodies are not forgotten in the grave, but though sown in corruption, they shall be raised in glory; though once in the image of the earthly, they shall be found in the image of the Heavenly.

But there is in Moses much more of a church or heavenly aspect, if I may so express myself, than even all this — as indeed it is only while they were travelling in the wilderness that Israel bears analogy to the church of God on the earth. The stricter analogy ends when Israel gets into Canaan, and is there organised and settled as God's nation; and therefore all things that happened to them as examples, and which are written for the church's admonition, happened to them when in the wilderness, and are found written, all of them, In the book of Numbers, which the Jews called, and properly so, "the book of the wilderness" (see 1 Cor. 10: 1-10). And Moses was their leader, and the companion of their joys and sorrows, only while they continued in the wilderness; and thus in the very character of his position while on the earth, his course, as we thus see, ending in the wilderness, and he himself never taking his place among the people of Israel, when organised and manifested as God's nation, we clearly discern in Moses much more of the heavenly than of the earthly calling — more of the church character than of Israel.

Besides, Moses was constantly with the Lord Jesus in the heavens, dwelling unveiled, like the church, in the presence of Christ beyond the region of the lightning and thunder, from whence the law was delivered (Ex. 34: 34; 2 Cor. 3: 18), and in the presence of which Israel stood (Ex. 24: 17). He was in the peaceful sunshine on the top of the hill of God; there he walked amid the fulness of Christ, receiving token after token of His grace and salvation. He saw face to face, he beheld the similitude of the Lord, and was spoken with mouth to mouth, and he shone with the heavenly glory of Jesus in the heights. And according to all this, he is afterwards seen in the holy mount, in company with Elijah, occupying the place which is characteristically the church's place (Matt. 17: 3).

And I would add this, that Moses got a wife and children when he was, through their unbelief and rejection of him, separated from his brethren, the children of Israel, and when, consequently, as he says himself, he was an "alien in a strange land" (Ex. 2: 22; Ex. 18: 3). And so has the Lord been brought in among the Gentiles through the unbelief and rejection of Israel, and is gathering a church, a wife and children, out from among them. And thus, in all this, Moses is strikingly in character with the Lord in the present dispensation and calling of the church, bearing upon him much more of the heavenly than of the earthly calling, exhibiting the Lord in connection with the church rather than with Israel. "This is he that was in the church in the wilderness."*

*I refrain for the present from stating what I apprehend to be the typical import of the names of Moses' children, though I believe them to be very significant,

But Joshua, who comes after Moses, presents another thing altogether. He stood in the land, the good land, which the Lord gave for an inheritance to Israel. The heathen were given to him, and the kings and rulers of the earth he broke in pieces like a potter's vessel. He divided the land by lot among the tribes, the children of the circumcision, and their reproach he rolled away. Joshua raised the altar of the Lord in the land, taking possession of it in His name, and the earth smiled around them, the garden of the Lord, again. Joshua was thus the man of victory, and the heir of the inheritance here; Moses had been but the man of Egypt and the wilderness, who died on the other side of Jordan. But Moses was laid up by the hand of the Lord for resurrection, while Joshua still stood upon the earth. Like Enoch and Noah of old among the patriarchs, Moses and Joshua now in Israel tell out the same wonderful tale, the purpose of God concerning the heaven and the earth, and in the same order of time also. For as Enoch was translated to heaven before Noah inherited the earth, so Moses was buried by the Lord in Mount Pisgah before Joshua crossed the Jordan, and took possession of the land of promise. But in their turn, under the guiding hand of God, they each take up the same mystery, and foreshow the dispensation of the fulness of times, and of the gathering of all things in Christ, whether things in earth, or things in heaven. The glories are two, but the same Lord is the centre and sustainer of both. In a glass darkly we see the heavenly family, whether alive or asleep at the coming of the Lord, in Enoch and Moses, and we see the earth restored and inherited again in Noah and Joshua.*

*And as to Moses and Joshua, I would further observe this — that they performed very different services for Israel, and they set forth the Lord in very different characters. Moses was the mediator between God and the people while travelling through the wilderness; Joshua was the saviour of the people out of the wilderness, and their leader into the land of rest and promise. Moses, therefore, presents the Lord in His Priesthood, or Mediatorship, as in this dispensation, or, as with the church. Joshua presents Him to us in His character as Saviour of Israel in the latter day, when He shall lead His ransomed tribes into their promised rest. Jesus is Saviour and Jesus and Joshua are one — the former being the Greek, the latter the Hebrew, form of the very same name.

Again, in the combined histories of Elijah and Elisha we shall find the same testimony among the prophets, another foreshowing of the same mystery; every age being thus made to witness this purpose of God. Elijah, like Enoch before him, stands in an evil day. He is called forth in a day of deep apostasy in Israel, and, in the spirit of a righteous reprover, he suddenly breaks in upon Ahab and all his iniquity with a voice of judgment. "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be, dew nor rain these years but according to my word" (1 Kings 17: 1). The Baptist's voice in another day, "Repent ye, O generation of vipers," was, as it were, but the echo of this voice of God's prophet before Ahab. The same spirit and power were in both. And their course on the earth was of one character also. The prophet suffers for his testimony; this was his only portion here. There was, it is true, a rejoicing in his light for a season, as afterwards with the Jews in the light of the Baptist. The people fell on their faces, acknowledging the Lord God of Elijah, saying, "Jehovah he is the God, Jehovah he is the God;" and the prophets of Baal were taken down and slain at the brook Kishon (1 Kings 18: 39, 40). But the burning and shining light of God's prophet was quickly disowned, as afterwards was John, his companion in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Another Herod and Herodias are confederate against Elijah, and he is exiled, afflicted, and destitute; the world hates him, the hand of man is against him. The Lord acknowledges His suffering witness, and comforts Him, — but it is the comforting of one who is cast down, cast down by the enmity of man. The still small voice of love meets his ear, but it is in that wilderness out to which the hand of a prosecutor had driven him. His enemies are strong and many, and from the beginning to the end he continues to be the suffering and exiled one, the righteous witness of God cast out by an evil generation. This was his course on earth; till at last, when the suffering was all accomplished, and he had fought his fight, and finished his course, and kept the faith, he is made to enter into glory. Having believed, he lives; having suffered, he reigns. Earth disowns, but heaven receives him. Another cloud takes him out of our sight (Acts 1: 9). The chariot and horses of Israel seat him as a child of the resurrection among the angels (Luke 20: 36), and the world, which had troubled him for his righteousness' sake, now only knows that his reward is great in heaven (Matt. 5: 12).

I need not say how all this is characteristic of the Lord and the church. The rejected One walking by faith on earth, there knowing the enmity of man, and the consolations of God, is at length glorified among the angels in heaven. All this tells us of that heavenly family who walk here in faith unvindicated and disowned; but who, believing, are to live, and who, suffering, are to reign. And as in the case of Moses, Elijah is seen in the holy mount, the companion of the glory, as he had been of the sufferings of Christ, occupying that which is to be the place of the church, or the heavenly glory.

But in Elisha we have something altogether different. No suffering for him after his master was taken from him. He stands before kings, and is not ashamed. It is not with him as it had been with his master; the wrath of the king prevailing to exile and to trouble him, but chief captains wait at his gates, and kings send presents to him; he discloses the secrets of one of them, disappoints the purposes of another, gives pledges of victory to a third, and grants supplies to combined armies of them. Chariots of salvation fill the mountain as attendants on the prophet. Every path on which he treads wears after him some trace of the greatness of him who had been travelling there; famine, disease, and death seem to own him; mercies and judgments are dispensed through his hand. He stands above all difficulty, going onward still in the Lord from strength to strength. Nature changes its course at his bidding; and at length even his dead body puts forth strange and surprising virtue (2 Kings 13: 21). It sends forth the prisoners out of the pit, that they might not die, but live, and walk on earth again, as before the Lord, in the land of the living.

All this was a travelling in greatness of strength; but it was a travelling in greatness only upon the earth. The things that Elisha did were great things (as it is said of them, 2 Kings 8: 4), but still they were only things of the earth. It was the earth that witnessed the power of God in the prophet; his was not, with Elijah, glory among the angels in heaven, but glory in the earth, power amid the resources and over the circumstances of the world. And thus again, in these two prophets, the same wondrous tale is told out, the same purpose of God concerning the heavens and the earth in the world to come. And the very same seasons may be observed here as we have observed above. Elijah was taken up by a whirlwind into heaven before Elisha received the double portion of his spirit, and went through the earth in the greatness of the strength of it. All this being to foreshow the heavens receiving the church; and then, but not till then, Israel and the earth receiving blessing again in the restitution of all things.*

*The same order of time seems matter of express revelation; for Paul says, "blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved" (Rom. 11: 25, 26).

Such are, to me, very distinct and significant foreshowings of the heavenly calling, and of the purpose of God, which in the dispensation of the fulness of times is to be manifested. But it must not be understood that in this comparative view of Enoch, Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, with Noah, Lot, Joshua, and Elisha — I mean to present the first rank as individually and personally belonging to the heavenly family, and the second rank of them to the earthly. Surely not. I speak of them only in their typical bearing.

They stand, when thus combined, as foreshowing the two departments of the coming kingdom of our Lord — the church called up to heaven and the throne — Israel settled in honour and in blessing, with the attending nations on the earth or the footstool. But as Enoch will be found among the children of the resurrection, so will Noah; and Joshua will appear with Moses, and Elisha with Elijah, in the true mount of transfiguration.

And this is just what we may observe upon that typical mount itself. There Peter, James, and John, in type, presented the place which the earthly family is to hold in the kingdom; for still, in bodies of flesh and blood, they stood merely before the heavenly glory, and not in it. But we know that in the antitype, or the kingdom, they will hold the other place, and be where they then saw Moses and Elijah, in the glory on the heavenly mount with the Lord Himself; this St. Peter clearly declares (2 Peter 1: 16). The inheritance of all the saints is in heaven (1 Peter 1: 4). The patriarchs looked for a "heavenly" country (Heb. 11: 19). The Lord is to come, and all His saints with Him, as Zechariah prophesies (Zech. 14: 5). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets are to be seen hereafter in the kingdom of God (Luke 13: 28). I do judge that scripture instructs us that all the elect, as well those who came before the Son was revealed, as well as those who are now under the ministry of the Spirit of the Son glorified, will be found together in the heavenly glory of the kingdom — for all are of one body. Until the Son was sent forth, they were as children under tutors and governors, under the rudiments of the world, but still they were of the Father, as we are. No better than servants, but still lords of all, as we are.

In their measure, too, they continued with the Lord in His temptations, standing each in his day faithful, like Jesus among the faithless; and therefore their place must be that of the children, and their reward that of the faithful witnesses. They lived by faith, and they died in faith, and are laid up surely as children of the resurrection: no longer of the earth, earthy, but to bear the image of the Heavenly, in the day when death is to be swallowed up of victory.

And now, in closing, let me, while having thus sought to know the deeper parts of God's ways and purposes concerning us, call to your remembrance, brethren, the ever fresh and blessed truth of the love of God our Saviour. The command to you is, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength." and again, the command is, "Rejoice in the Lord alway." Now, never would He have thus commanded us, if He had not forgiven us, and would have us to know this forgiveness. For it were but a thankless task to try to love Him thus, and to rejoice in Him thus, while we know not that He is ours in the full joy of forgiveness. It were a commandment beyond obedience altogether, if we were not to know Him in the reconciliation. He who commands us to love and rejoice in Him, commands us to know Him to be at peace with us. He never would have said to us

"Give me thy heart," if He had not addressed us with "My son" (Prov. 23: 25). The call tells us of the relationship; the demand made upon us implies the grace which has been brought to us; and in this way we may use the sweet words of our Lord, "I know that his commandment is life everlasting." It is His command that we believe in His forgiving love. God is disobeyed if we receive not the blessing with joy. Our obedience to God, therefore, thus depends on our receiving the reconciliation.

But not only this, our godly use and apprehension of the things around us depends, in like manner, on knowing the reconciliation through the death and rising again of Jesus. It is this which the new creature in Christ apprehends in them all, as the apostle speaks, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, and behold all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ." And not only so, all that which as saints is our service to others depends on this likewise. For instance, our ministry flows from it: for it is to us, as the apostle further speaks, who are reconciled that the ministry of reconciliation is given (2 Cor. 5: 18). "We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus." Our intercessions flow from it, for it is only in the consciousness of our own acceptance that we can intercede for others. Abraham drew near to the Lord when he prayed for Sodom. The high priest under the law went into the holiest of all. The altar of incense stood close to the second veil. And therefore, when the church is exhorted to make prayers, supplications, intercessions, and giving of thanks for all men, she is, doubtless, by that very exhortation commanded to know her own full acceptance, and thus to pray without doubting (1 Tim. 2). So blessedly thus, dear brethren, does everything help to assure our hearts before God our Saviour, and keep us in the sense of His forgiving and accepting love. The very commands He has delivered, the spirit in which He calls us to walk, the services He requires, all are made to witness to us the reconciliation. The full abiding sense of the reconciliation we should bear about with us everywhere; as Adam, though sent out to a world which his own sin had defiled, and which was thus a constant witness against him, bore on his shoulder the coat of skin, the pledge and witness of grace and forgiveness towards him from the hand of God Himself.

And I would add one other thing, which has touched my own soul with comfort while writing these pages — that if we even now rejoice (as surely we do daily), and that in a world of such offence and trespass as "this present evil world" is — if the sunshine and fruitful seasons, and a thousand other springs of constant, ever flowing joy be such as they are to us here, what must be the joy when the offence is for ever removed, and all is subjection and service! when God again rejoices in His works! when in the dispensation of the fulness of times He has gathered together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him! May the brightness of that day be much before us, and our hearts know more and more what it is to long for His appearing.

God's Call out of the Earth

God's Call out of the Earth.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

In the midst of the increased and still growing corruption of the whole scene around us, and of the threatened dissolving of all things, it is much laid upon the mind to consider with simplicity and clearness the character of our calling.

The call of God out of the earth, and God's assertion of title to the earth, are things that greatly differ, and should be morally and practically distinguished by the saints.

The call of God proceeds on the principle that God Himself is outside the earth, and that He is not seeking it, but seeking a people to be His in His place outside and above it The earth, therefore, by this call, is left just as it was. For it is a stranger to the purpose of God.

This call of God out of the earth was exhibited in the family of Seth, before the flood. Cain's house was in possession of the earth, and Seth does not interfere with them. Not at all. All he and his generation have to do with the earth is to call on the name of the Lord while they are on it (not to engrave, like Cain, their own name there — (Gen. 4: 17), and then to lay their dead bodies in it.

So was it exhibited afterwards in Abraham. He is called of God. But such call leaves the Canaanites without a rival. He does not contend with the potsherds of the earth. He does not dispute their right as lords of the soil. He desires only to pitch his wandering tent upon the face of it, or to lay his bones in the bowels of it.

And so the Church or heavenly family of this dispensation. Their call leaves the Gentiles in power. The Church has nothing to say to "the powers that be," but either to obey unreluctantly, or to suffer patiently, according as the demand made by the powers be such or not as involves their subjection to Christ.

This determines at once our duties. We render to the powers ordained of God their dues, without in any wise seeking to disturb them, knowing also that even if they behave themselves unrighteously, we are not constituted their judges.

But the character of our service is likewise determined by this call of God. Service to God is wanting in its true character, if it do not intimate that He is not now re-asserting His title to the earth; or, in other words, our service to Christ must be to Him as the rejected Christ. For He is such an One all the time He remains in the "far country." The, cry has followed Him there from the earth, "We will not have this man to reign over us." And is that cry to be answered by the servants who occupy their talents during His absence? (See Luke 19) Surely not. They serve Him in the patient sense of His rejection all the time, and "they are not ashamed of his chain."

In like manner, moreover, this determines what our habits should be. Our habits should tell that the earth is not our place, as our services should tell that it is not our Lord's place.

This affords a holy and serious admonition to our souls.

Our call does not connect us with the earth. Our necessities do so, it is true. We need the fruit of the ground, the toil of the hand, and the skill of the heart, to provide things needful for the body. Our necessities, thus, connect us with the earth, and we may attend to it for the supply of such necessities. But our call does not connect us with it, but rather separates us from it.

To link the Church and the earth is acting at once on apostate principles. To aim at changing the character or condition of Christ in the world, or to serve Him save as the rejected One, is not service rendered in spiritual discernment.

These things we may know well and admit easily. But if we refuse to link the Church with the world, are we daily watching to refuse to link the heart with it, the hopes with it, the calculation of the mind with it? If it be easy to see the Church now on the eve of losing the world, and to see this without regret, is it alike easy to see our interests losing it, our name and distinction losing it? Such an one was Paul. He would not reign as a king yet; but he had learnt how to have and how to want, how to abound and how to suffer need.

In God's dealing by Israel, there was an assertion of title to the earth. Joshua went into "the possession of the Gentiles" and took with him "the ark of the Lord of all the earth," that his sword might make it the possession of the Lord and His people. But Paul went into the possessions of Jews and Gentiles, not to disturb their tenure of anything there, but to take out of them a people unto God, to link souls with the disallowed Stone, and to teach them that their blessings were spiritual and heavenly.

So, according to the Lord's teaching. See the two parables in Luke 19, 20. In settling Israel, the Lord gave them a vineyard, a portion of the earth, and told them to till it for Him, rendering Him dues as the Lord of the soil. In settling the saints of this age, He gave them talents, such gifts and opportunities of service as were suited to the fact of His absence and rejection by the world, having no estate or kingdom here till He should return.,

Practically to forget such distinctions, or to act on the principle that the Church is God's instrument for asserting His claim to the earth, is apostacy from her calling of God.

In His ministry the Lord was judging Satan, but refusing to judge the sinner. And, according to this, at the end of His ministry, He tells Peter to put up the sword, and Pilate, that His servants could not fight.

The way of His saints is to be according to all this. They are to judge morally or spiritually (i.e., defilements within themselves), but not contend about the interests of the world. The apostle condemns them for not doing the one and for doing the other (see 1 Cor. 5, 6), with this difference however — their duty in the first matter is peremptory (1 Cor. 5), their way in the second is left more and more to their measure of grace (1 Cor. 6). And according to this also the apostle tells us that our weapons are not carnal but spiritual, our warfare not with flesh and blood, but with spiritual wickedness (2 Cor. 10, Eph. 6). We are really or spiritually defeated, when we fight carnally: for the devil has raised in us that temper which has sent us forth to the carnal fight.

GOD'S CLAIM OF THE EARTH.

GOD'S assertion of His title to the earth is one thing, as I have observed in the preceding paper, and God's call out of the earth is another. Both have been again and again exhibited in the progress of the divine dispensations.

Our history, I may say, began with the first of these. Adam in the garden was required to own the rights and sovereignty of God, by constant obedience, touching the Tree of Knowledge.

Again, this was exhibited, in Noah. In him the Lord was re-asserting His own rights and inheritance in the earth, and taking up the earth again, as He had done at creation, as the scene of blessing.

And, again, in further process of time, this was exhibited in Israel. The Lord was then becoming the sovereign of the soil again, and in His elect nation witnessing His claims to the earth.

And the same will He do by Israel the second time, when, in millennial days, as the prophet speaks, the king of Israel will be the God of the whole earth. "Then the earth recommences anew, under the authority of God delegated to Jesus," as another has strikingly expressed it.

In one sense, of course, God has ever asserted His sovereignty in the earth, because it is always true: "The powers that be are ordained of God." But at times, His assertion of His place and title in the earth forms the character of the dispensation, and at other times His call of His people out of it forms the character of the dispensation. This is what I mean: — the sword went to the Gentiles, when Israel lost themselves; but the glory did not go with it.

Now we may observe, that whenever God arises, as in a form of dispensational action. to assert title to the earth, He begins by judging the scene. This, of course; because the place of His purposed power and glory having corrupted itself, He must take the offence away and purify it. His presence could not brook iniquity. His call is not accompanied by such judgments; because all the connection which it takes with the earth, or the scene here, is to draw the elect out of it.

Noah's lordship of the earth was accordingly preceded by the flood, which carried away the world of the ungodly. — Israel's inheritance of Canaan was attended by the judgment of the Amorites, and the sword of Joshua executed the commission of the Lord. The coming kingdom of the Lord and His Christ will be prepared, as all Scripture verifies, with a like clearing out of all that offends.

Beside, however, this prefatory or cleansing judgment, there has a law been delivered, suited to this assertion of God's title to the earth and to the maintenance of His name and right in it.

When Noah was set up, like Adam, as the representative of God's claim and power on the earth a law was given to him, as to Adam, for his guidance in his place: more complex, necessarily; because the condition of things had become so. Sin had entered, and sin had to be restrained or punished; as redemption, which had become God's principle, or the principle of divine religion among men, had to be testified and celebrated. With Adam all that was needful was the one command, just sufficient to maintain the witness of God's supremacy in the midst of man's lordship and enjoyment of the garden and the creatures, that all might be in right moral order. But in Noah, when God's rights in the earth come again to be asserted, sin having entered, other things were required, and laws for the government of such a place, as well as ordinances for the maintenance of religion in so changed a scene, have to be instituted. These we accordingly find in Genesis 9: 1-6.

The pursuit of this line of thought I feel has its interest for us.

In the progress of the ages, I will, therefore, go on to observe, when Israel becomes God's witness on the earth, as I have already noticed, an economy of laws, statutes, and ordinances, both civil and religious, is established. A nation had now been taken up. The legislator had to contemplate manifold relationships, and as manifold contingencies, with all the variety of private and public rights and injuries, together with the maintenance of divine religion and worship. It had been a much simpler thing, as Noah came forth from the ark with his family, and a much simpler thing still, when Adam was set alone in Eden, than now it could be, when the host of Israel (say 600,000 strong) crossed the Jordan into their inheritance.

Accordingly, the statute-book is longer. Fitting it is that we should find it so. And so we do. Exodus 21, 22, 23, gives us the statutes which, at the beginning, and before they entered on their possession, had been decreed for the ruling of this elect and redeemed nation, in their civil relationships, and in their national religion. Ordinances of divine service pointing to "good things to come" accompany this economy or covenant. But these chapters are the statutebook, the book that was sprinkled with blood in the day of the covenant between the God of Israel and His people. (Exodus 24: 7.)

Between this day and the day of Deuteronomy, Moses had had all the experience of the wilderness. We may well expect him to give a parting word after such experience. He does so. But the book of Deuteronomy is not to be read, as a second or enlarged edition of the statute-book. It may rehearse, in its own style, many of the earlier provisions, and give new enactments and ordinances. But still it is not, merely or properly, an enlarged edition of the former book. It is rather a discourse by the legislator, in the assembly and audience of the nation, as well as upon their past history, such as their travels, fortunes, and conduct, as upon their laws, ordinances, and hopes — a word full of affectionate appeal, of earnest encouragement, and of holy, serious admonition; the father rather than the law-giver being heard to speak, soliciting as well as directing the people in the way of obedience and blessing.

Thus was it as with Moses and Israel.

Between the times of Moses and Solomon, many changes had passed. As to my present purpose, I may say that the principal of them was this that the nation had become a kingdom. The promised land had been gained — reached and conquered. The Lord had been found faithful to all His covenant engagements, and Israel rebellious again and again. Terrible evils had been committed, and sorrowful discipline endured under the judges and King Saul. But in season the Lord arose, in the riches of His grace and the might of His Spirit, and in David righteousness prevails, and in Solomon peace follows it.

The book of the law goes up to the throne with Solomon, according to the ordinance (Deut. 17); and necessarily so. For the throne in Israel being for the Lord, the law of the Lord must be owned there. The sceptre rules in His name, and must, therefore, rule according to His mind. Solomon, therefore, is not a lawgiver. He is not a second Moses, though he is "king in Jeshurun." In the throne God is greater than he. God's law was to go up to the throne with him, that he, even there, might be God's liege subject. And the law with him on the throne was like the command to Adam in the garden. Each of these ordinances spake this word or uttered this voice, that there was One higher than the highest; and any attempt to give the law a lower place than the throne itself would have been, in its way, a taking again of that tree, of the which the Lord God had said, "Thou shalt not eat."

Solomon, therefore, was properly no law-giver like Moses in the book of Exodus. Neither does he discourse on the laws, enlarging them or their sanctions, like Moses in the book of Deuteronomy. He does not, after such manners, "sit in Moses' seat." But he may, like him, be the father of his people. He is their teacher in the rules of wisdom. He has them before him, that he may discourse to them on the conditions of the earth, where they had their citizenship or conversation. He tells them of human life, its duties, trials, labours. and vicissitudes in its manifold enjoyments and connections. He unfolds to them the springs of human action, the thoughts and tempers of men; and warns against the snares and principles of the world. After such an order as this, is the wisdom which King Solomon delivers to his people who stand before him. The same Spirit, who, in Moses, dictated the, rules of civil life, and gave laws to a nation, with statutes, judgments, and ordinances, through Solomon, can comment on the whole scene around, that they who have their citizenship in the earth may be ordered there in righteousness, equity, and truth. The law of God is with him and over him on the throne, but he comes down from thence into the midst of his people and their ten thousand relationships on the footstool, and there, in the Spirit of God, reads lessons of righteousness and instructions of wisdom touching all that he surveys.*

*The warrantableness and even fitness of the saints acquainting themselves with botany and such things has been often insisted on the authority of Solomon's knowledge of the cedar and the hyssop. But this shows ignorance of the call and purpose of God. Would Paul, I ask, have acquainted himself with the cedar and the hyssop? Surely not. He had his knowledge of heavenly mysteries through that same Spirit which acquainted Solomon with the secrets of the earth; because the Spirit acted in company with the call or dispensation of God. Let saints, if they can with an approving mind, study botany and visit scenery; but do not let them vindicate such ways on the authority of Solomon's acquaintance with nature from the cedar and the hyssop.

Such I believe to be the book of Proverbs.

A Meditation on Canticles

A Meditation on Canticles.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend, vol. 13, 1886, p. 187.

The character of the soul's communion delineated in this little book is very elevated. It is something that we may say with sorrow we little reach. There is no question of sin at all here; it is no enquiry either into the fact or the nature or the ground of our acceptance with God. Such questions and enquiries are here settled beforehand. The communion here is upon the settlement of them all. It is joy in God, delight in Christ, occupation with Himself, that we get here. It is not the finding of Him out, but the enjoying of Him as found to be infinitely suited to the soul's blessing; nor is it the confession of sins. The communion is a sinner's communion most surely, but it is of a consciously pardoned, accepted, and loved sinner; and when any sorrow or repentance is felt or owned here, it is not for any blot or open transgression, but for some spiritual backsliding, some momentary coldness, some infirmity in maintaining or cultivating the soul's due fervour towards Christ. This last point I feel to be especially significant, and such as gets its illustration in this little portion of the book. There is in the believer here the detecting of something wrong; but what is the character of the wrong? Nothing gross or even open in conduct, nothing established as a habit, nothing that a soul that had not been already in simple and earnest fellowship with Jesus would have been apprehensive of; that is, a temporary slothfulness of heart. The very repentance and confession is of such a nature as intimates the fine tone of the soul that could feel and make it; the contact is so tender that the very perception of it speaks the delicacy of the organ which met it and resented it. But what an element is this! Ah, how coarse are our sensibilities compared with all this! Our poor souls are rarely here. They are engaged ofttimes in doing first works again, in grieving over the advantage which our lusts have taken of us, the surprisals which the heat of wrong tempers have wrought, and such like things that keep us below this peace and spiritual joy in Christ. This sickness of love, this keeping of the garden of spices, here so blessedly presented, surely it is little of this we know. Is God thus our exceeding joy? Is it thus in the chambers of the King in thoughts of glory we walk? Is our spikenard thus greeting our Lord, and our souls thus able to call Him nothing less than our Beloved? It were well indeed if such affections as these were filling and commanding our hearts. Thus should we have weapons of sure victory wherewith to meet our enemies, and to beat down the intrusive desires and thoughts that defile us so often. They could not with any power come against a soul thus occupied. This joy of the Lord would indeed be our strength; but, indeed, we know it but poorly. It is not the love of pity in the Saviour which the sinner here enjoys, but the love of complacency which there is in Christ towards His elect. The soul here has tasted the pity and salvation of the Son of God, and is now occupying itself with thoughts of His delights in His saints. Oh, what communion is this! what a dwelling-place for faith opens here! what a banqueting-house for the soul! How far distant from fear and clouds of conscience such regions lie; the land of the turtle indeed, the garden of all pleasant fruits. But where is the precious faith to enter it and walk there? We need to cry for largeness of heart in the bowels of Christ Jesus. J. G. B.

The Parable of the Cedar and the Two Eagles

The Parable of the Cedar and the Two Eagles.

Ezekiel 17.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

Discipline preserves us for future blessing, but it does not exalt us in this present world.

Connected with this thought, let us read this parable.

This cedar is Judah, or the house of David; the two eagles are the king of Babylon and the king of Egypt.

This cedar had incurred the discipline of the Lord, and the Lord used the king of Babylon, one of the eagles, as the rod of His hand, for correction. Under this rod, the house of David would be humbled, but preserved — for correction is for purifying, not for destruction. Discipline plants us in "a fruitful field," and by "great waters;" but we grow there, for the present, only as "a willow tree," as "a spreading vine of low stature," as this parable has it; "base," but kept and sheltered. (Ver. 5, 6, 14.)

Jehoiachin, who was of this cedar, found this to be so. He humbled himself under this eagle, the king of Babylon, the Lord's rod for correction, and he was preserved, though "base," for a season. For thirty-six years he was hid in Babylon; but he was then exalted, proving that he had been planted in "a fruitful field," though, for so long a season, he was but "a willow tree." (See 2 Kings 24, 25)

But another eagle comes near this cedar; and this cedar, the house of David, in the person of Zedekiah, who succeeded Jehoiachin, solicits him, "bends her roots towards him, and shoots forth her branches towards him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation." (See verse 7.)

Zedekiah seeks the king of Egypt, "that he might give him horses and much people," (verse 15) might flourish again under his shadow, refusing to be any longer "a willow tree." But this was rebellion against the Lord's rod, and the Lord revisits it as rebellion against Himself; and He enquires, shall such a cedar prosper? and He answers, he shall not prosper. Zedekiah shall know not merely the discipline but the judgment of the Lord. (Ver. 19, 20.) What a picture this is! what a moral may be read in it!

Happy is it when the soul bows to the hand of God, accepting the punishment of our sins. It is the place of blessing. Israel's blessing began there. When they stripped off their ornaments, and sought the Lord outside the camp, they were in the way to a blessing. (Ex. 33) And so, after they had failed in the kingdom, as they had failed in the wilderness, their blessing lay in Babylon as before it lay outside the camp. They must accept the punishment of their sins and go there.

It is thus with us individually. We must be broken in order to be blest. Discipline will keep us for future exaltation, but leave us "base" in this world. It is a "fruitful field" to the soul. But these are terms we do not particularly like. We would rather "bend our roots" towards that which may help us in the world. But that way, which is our own way, will end, as with Zedekiah, in shame and ruin. (See 2 Kings 25) Accepting the judgment of God, submitting under His mighty hand, will end, as with Jehoiachin, in blessing and exaltation.

Such is the parable of the cedar and the two eagles in Ezek. 17. But the close of that chapter, after the parable, must also be looked at. (See Ezek. 17: 22, 24.)

The prophet here looks forward to the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the cedar of this parable in his day, the heir of the house of David; and this passage presents Him as taking His place as humbled and broken with the nation of Israel or the throne of David, and from thence, according to God, receiving His exaltation and kingdom.

But though broken, this was neither in conscience nor in relationship. He could not have been humbled, or broken, or convicted in conscience (as we are to be), for He was stainless and spotless, with neither corruption within, nor blemish without. He could not have been broken in relationship, as the house of David was, because he was no more federally represented by that fallen house, than as Son of man He was federally represented or headed in Adam. But He was broken in circumstances — for the ends of the glory of God, and the blessing of His people, the Lord Jesus was, by His own will, broken in circumstances. The heir of the throne was a carpenter. The Lord of the earth and its fulness had not where to lay His head. He was "a tender twig," a "low tree," a "dry tree." This is the Jesus of Isaiah 53 of whom it is said, "He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him." But this "tender twig" shall, in due season, be planted, as this passage tells us, "upon an high mountain and eminent." It shall "bring forth boughs and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar, and under it shall dwell all fowls of every wing, in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell."

And this is the millennial Jesus, as the other was the Nazarene Jesus. The "tender twig" of our prophet is the Nazarene Jesus; the "goodly cedar" with its boughs and fruit is the millennial Jesus. But it is the same Jesus who thus vindicates, and illustrates, and glorifies all the thoughts and principles, and truth of God. As the prophet closes this chapter, giving us the moral of the whole action: "And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the Lord have spoken and have done it."

And surely this is very much the common moral of all God's dealings with us in this scene of proud revolt. And I may say again, as at the beginning, His discipline preserves us for future blessing and exaltation, but it does not make us great in this present world.

"Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." But in contrast with this, just for another moment look at the history of another famous tree that was once set in the soil of this world. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, whom we have seen in this parable as one of the two eagles, was also a celebrated tree. His branch spread in its day, as the branch of this millennial Jesus will do by-and-by in "the world to come." (See Dan. 4) But Nebuchadnezzar had not previously been "a tender twig," a "low tree," a "dry tree." Accordingly, he exalts himself and meets the judgment of God. His leaves are scattered, his fruit shaken off, his branches cut down. He is left as "a stump in the earth." And then, being broken and humbled under God's mighty hand, God blesses, and exalts him, in His own way, at the latter end — that we may again learn God's way, to make us "tender twigs" ere we become "goodly cedars."

Christ Our Prophet

Christ Our Prophet.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

In John 3 the Lord speaks of earthly and heavenly things. (Ver. 12.) He puts the doctrine of the new birth among the earthly things, but quite owns that without it there is no entrance for any soul into God's kingdom at all, whether in its earthly or heavenly places. But still that doctrine was earthly, inasmuch as it was common, in this way, to all, and not needed only for the heavenly people.

There are, however, heavenly things in distinction from earthly, and He speaks of Himself as the prophet or revealer of such (ver. 13), in which character John also speaks of Him, contrasting Him with the former prophets of Israel.

He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth; he that cometh from heaven is above all, and what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth." (Ver. 31, 32.)

In this way, both the Lord and the Baptist, in this chapter, distinguish between things earthly and heavenly, and speak of Jesus as the great distinct prophet of the things heavenly. So that we are by this prepared for two conclusions, that in the old prophets we must expect to find earthly things, and in the teaching of Jesus to His apostles, heavenly things. There may be notices of the heavenly things scattered, or shining, through the prophets — there may be also; notices of earthly or Jewish hopes and calling in the apostles — but the main purpose of the Spirit by the prophets is to tell of the earth's interests, and the main purpose of the same Spirit by the apostles is to tell of the Church's heavenly interests.

Moses was the type of our Lord as our prophet, or the prophet of heavenly things. (See Deut. 18: 15; Deut. 34: 10.) He was distinguished from the ordinary prophets. For God speaks to them by visions and dreams, but to Moses "face to face," or apparently. Moses had access to all God's house. His place was in the holiest, as well as in the courts of the tabernacle. (Num. 12)

So the Son. He has access to all that is of God, according to Moses who was His type. He has fellowship with God Himself, being the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person. And He has fellowship with Him in all His works and counsels, His ways which were before the world and His ways which will be after the world, His ways in all ages or dispensations or worlds, His ways in providence or in upholding of all things, and His thoughts and counsels at the two extreme points, the cross of Calvary, when He purged our sins, and the right hand of highest majesty, where He is now sitting down. (Heb. 1: 1-3.)

Thus as Moses had access to all God's house and was spoken to "face to face," so the Son is in the fullest and deepest intimacies with all of God, His glory, His person, His counsels, and ways, and works at all times and in all places.

And our interests flow from this, in contrast with the interests of the fathers. For the fathers were spoken to by the prophets, by those who had but visions and dreams. We are now spoken to by the Son, by Him who sees face to face, who has access to all that is of God. And this lets us into heavenly things as well as earthly. This discloses the holiest to our view as well as the courts, because our prophet is there, while the prophets of the fathers were more in the distance, in the place of visions and dreams.

The Church at Thessalonica

The Church at Thessalonica.

J. G. Bellett.

Previously published bound with 'Brief Notes on the Epistle to the Ephesians'.

We easily perceive different measures of  attainment, both in knowledge and grace, in the churches of old. The elevation, for instance, of that at Ephesus was much above that at Corinth. At Corinth the apostle had to occupy himself with the corruption of various errors and abuses, and was thus hindered from bringing out to the disciples the strong and rich meat of the word. He kept from them that "hidden wisdom" which he had in store for the "perfect," because they were "carnal . . . babes in Christ." (1 Cor. 3: l.) But at Ephesus his course was free; he had not to stop in order to correct abuses and errors, but could go on to feed the church with wisdom and knowledge, and reveal to them "the mystery" or "hidden wisdom," which he had to keep back from the saints at Corinth. (Eph. 3) At Corinth the Holy Ghost, by the apostle, had to take care of their own things, and show them to them for correction; but at Ephesus He could do His more blessed work of taking of the things of Christ and showing them to them for edification and comfort.

So that, in distinguishing the condition of these two churches, I might say that the priest was trimming the lamp at Corinth, using the golden snuffers there for correction of evil; while at Ephesus he was feeding the lamp, pouring in fresh oil for the filling and brightening of it with increase of light and grace.

The other churches under the care of Paul occupied, as I judge, certain standings between Corinth and Ephesus; that is, they did not call for the same measure of rebuke as Corinth ' nor did they stand so much beyond the necessity of all personal notice as Ephesus. But in the epistles to them we discern a mixed action of feeding and trimming the lamps. Indeed, I might class the churches in Galatia with that at Corinth, for there such error had entered that the apostle had little to do but to correct and rebuke it, and thus, as it might be, restore the minds of the disciples. But whether it be at Rome, Philippi, Colosse, or Thessalonica, we see the apostle applying himself both to the evil and the good that was among the saints there; and I would shortly look at each of them.

Thus at ROME he has in view to bind Jewish and Gentile believers together, as among the disciples in that city there appears to have been the retaining of their several prejudices, which were threatening to divide. A great deal of blessed truth is brought out in the epistle, but the present practical end of it all seems to be to secure the union and forbearance of the saints one towards another. But there is not any great amount of evil or mischief recognised by him.

At PHILIPPI the church was beautiful for much grace, and for grace, too, that was peculiar to herself. Yet the apostle, in his epistle to that church, evidently alludes to symptoms of disunion which had appeared among them; but because of the other grace that was there, he alludes to this evil with marked tenderness and reserve, often expressing the comfort wherewith he was comforted in them. And this tender style of the apostle, while noticing the evil among the Philippians, should tell us, when we see much of the grace of Christ in a brother, we should remember that when dealing with evil that may be in him also. It is not that the apostle overlooked the evil at Philippi, but he remembered the grace that was there; and this imparted a chastened and affectionate tone while addressing himself to the evil.

At COLOSSE the apostle, it is true, feeds the saints with most precious knowledge, with the richest thoughts of Christ and His fulness. But this evidently was because he feared the entrance of Judaising principles among them, for which fear he gives us clearly to see that he had good reason; and the only divine corrective of that evil is the knowledge of the sufficiency of Christ for all the necessity both of the sinner and of the saint.

At THESSALONICA the coming and kingdom of the Lord Jesus had been especially received through the apostle's ministry; and in the epistles to the church there he still feeds them with further light upon that great doctrine. But while he does that, he has also to correct a certain practical error which was peculiar to them.

Thus we clearly discern different conditions in the grace and knowledge of the different churches. And all these things happened unto them for ensamples, as much as the things that happened to Israel in the wilderness; and they are here in the same way written for our learning. (1 Cor. 10) And we may bless God that we have this His own inspired answer to so many anxieties and questions that might arise in our hearts while walking one with another.

In what I have said I may not have altogether rightly discerned the standings of the several churches; but I have no doubt of the fact that they were different. I speak of the churches as known by the epistles addressed to them severally. Into some of these lamps of the sanctuary more oil had been poured than into others.

The fact which I have already noticed so clearly shows us this — that the apostle withheld from the Corinthians the revelation of the mystery which he so fully makes known to the Ephesians. And this at once shows how impotent and unwarranted the requisition is, that the minds of all the disciples should be found exactly according to one measure and standing before the fellowship of the church can be allowed or administered. Nay, so far from this, I am free to believe that if a member of the church at Ephesus had visited Corinth, he would have found them so concerned with questions and strifes which had never troubled him or his brethren at home, as might have left him in doubt respecting them. And so one going from Corinth to Ephesus would have found them so occupied with such truth which he had never heard of at home, that he might have suspected, in modern language, that they were all in the clouds at Ephesus. I can thus suppose, from their different measures of light and attainment in Christ, that they might not well have known what to do.

Now, I believe we see among the saints at present what we thus might have seen among the churches of old; we have our Ephesian and Corinthian difficulties still. The truths received by some disciples are treated as mere speculation by others, and the condition of some is low and doubtful. The large and blessed mind of God, which filled the apostle, could of old survey them all, and provide for them all, and feed them at Ephesus and trim them at Corinth. But we are weak and narrow-hearted; and the only result commonly is, to walk in mutual distance and suspicion. Thus we do not understand one another's speech, and we are scattered. But better is it to be scattered than to be brought together on the terms of any bond short of God's own bond in the Holy Ghost. Whereto we have already attained, in that let us walk by the same rule, hoping for more. But let us not force beyond that by any fleshly compacts. The fear of God must not be taught by the commandment of men.

And in connection with this, I would notice the state of Job and his three friends; for I believe that it illustrates the same thing which this state of the churches does. Job could not understand the truth which was in their thoughts, nor could they allow that which he had of God's mind in his; they were but partially in the light, and, through the remainder of darkness that was in them, they mistook the way and jostled each other. And the correction lay only in God, and in the end He applied it. They were all accepted — God proved Himself the adequate Healer of all their divisions, as He will, by-and-by, join the whole of the heavenly family in one body in the mansions on high, and unite the two sticks of Ephraim and Judah in the earth below.

The largeness of the mind of God contains the remedy, but nothing else does. That mind may express itself forth from the whirlwind, or by the ministry of an apostle; but, however that, be, it bears the remedy with it,. The Lord who can with one hand separate the chaff from the wheat, with the other can gather up all the scattered grains that are now strewing His field in shameful disorder, and find room in His garner for them all.

And this comforts, while it admonishes. It is not that we are to confound the chaff with the wheat. It is as much of the Spirit of God to say, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema," as to say, "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." It is as much of the testimony of God to say, "He that hath not the Son of God hath not life," as to say, "He that hath the Son hath life" — "If any man preach any other gospel . . . let him be accursed."

But still let us know there have been different measures of attainments among the saints, and let our personal and individual care be so to walk in light and grace ourselves as not to give occasion either to the enemy to speak reproachfully or to our brethren to speak doubtfully of us. And let us have our hearts and consciences in lively exercise before God with a purpose to follow our light, lead us where it may, in the grace and fear of the Lord. But when these are the springs of the personal movement and course of each of us, we have, though in many things differently minded, the materials of both safe and blessed communion.

Among the several churches of which we read in the New Testament I have lately been led specially to meditate on the character and standing of that at Thessalonica. To understand it rightly we must look first to the nature of St. Paul's preaching at Thessalonica, and then to the purpose and bearing of his epistles.

He visited the place immediately after his sufferings at Philippi; but it was only to renew his sufferings. (Acts 17) However, a people were gathered out, and in this place gathered out not only to the knowledge of God's salvation, but eminently to the hope of His "Son from heaven." (1 Thess. 1: 10)

On visiting the synagogue at Thessalonica, the apostle sought to prove to the Jews that their promised Messiah was both to die and to rise again; and upon this he asserts, in the first place, that Jesus was the promised Messiah. And having thus claimed for Jesus identity with the Messiah, he asserts, in the second place, that this Jesus, the Messiah, was also King. This we gather from the challenge of his accusers. (Acts 17: 7) And the scriptures of the prophets had already testified this, as well as the former: "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow."

But these things did not contain the full mystery of Christ. He felt there was something lacking in their faith which he desired to supply (1 Thess. 3: 10), for his ministry among them had been interrupted. The enmity of the Jews had forced him suddenly out. (Acts 17: 10) This, with many other reasons, gave him special concern for them. The grace that was among them was so abundant; they were so excellent for work of faith, for labour of love, and for patience of hope; the tone of their faith was so honest and decisive, also the purpose of heart with which they had come forth to own, as far as they had learnt it, the hope of the gospel: all this drew out his pastoral anxiety for them. And he had spent so much labour and care upon them, and they themselves were so exposed to such trial of faith and to so much that might naturally tempt them to give up Christ, and yet withal they had made so fair a promise of being his joy and crown in the day of our Lord Jesus, that the apostle was specially jealous over them; and under all this anxiety he had already sent Timothy to them, consenting to be left at Athens alone, desiring greatly to see them himself, and attributing the hindrance to Satan.

Now out of all this care for them the epistles flow. All this is not merely the apostle's but the Spirit's care. The Spirit, who had wrought among them by the apostle, now yearns over them in the apostle.

In their present state of knowledge their minds were tried and troubled. They had fallen, as I judge, under the power of two distinct apprehensions which were very painful to them, one of which concerned the sleeping saints, and the other the living saints.

(1) They feared that their brethren who had died would come short of the kingdom on the Lord's return to the earth. (1 Thess. 4)

(2) They feared that those who were alive would meet the terror of the day that was to accompany that return and usher in the kingdom. (2 Thess. 2)

This, I believe, was their present condition; and to comfort their hearts respecting these two fears and apprehensions appears to me to be the chief purpose of his two epistles to them.

His first epistle was soon after Timothy's return from Thessalonica. Timothy had brought back (1 Thess. 3) most comfortable intelligence about them; but it is likely that he had also told the apostle of their anxiety touching their sleeping or dead brethren. To remove this he at once writes to them that they might no longer be ignorant of this, that the saints, whether sleeping or alive, should be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air at His coming. (1 Thess. 4: 13-18)

His second epistle was drawn from him on hearing of their other anxiety touching the living saints. It matters not how that had arisen, whether from the false suggestions of others, or from an imperfect interpretation of his own first epistle; but to remove it he writes to them, as I judge, his second epistle that they might know that "the day of the Lord," in which they feared the living saints would be involved, could not come till "the man of sin" was revealed, and that man of sin, and all departed from the truth with him, would be the due objects to meet the terror of that day, and that therefore they might put away their fear. (2 Thess. 2: 1-9.)

These I judge to be the occasion and the principal purpose of each of these epistles, the apostle by them meeting the apprehensions of the Thessalonian disciples; teaching them that by the power of Him who raised Jesus from the grave, the sleeping saints were as sure of the kingdom as the living ones, and by the gathering together of all to the Lord in the air, the living saints were as free of the terrors of the day that was coming on the earth as the sleeping ones. Neither life nor death, things present nor things to come, could separate them, for that they were to ascend with equal certainty from the grave or from the earth as the Lord should descend from heaven, and thus all of them meet Him before He reaches the earth in the terror and judgment of His day.

This I receive as the divine instruction of these epistles: it is important to the standing and hope of the saints. I say not that I have surely discerned aright, but I have had this long in my thoughts and heard nothing that leads to a questioning of it. But we know nothing but in part, and as the Lord may give to others, so may I, and each of us, beloved, receive either for confirmation or correcting. It is more as suggestion and calling other souls into holy exercise that I would now give forth this. But the Lord meeting His saints without any necessary cause of delay, without their being subject necessarily to wait for any of the troubles that usher in the glory, I do judge has been from the beginning the promise and hope of the dispensation, and to present that is my desire here.

The descent to saints is to be "with a shout," the voice of gladness; the descent to the earth, or world, is to be in "flaming fire," the minister of righteous wrath. (Cp. 1 Thess. 4: 16 and 2 Thess. 1: 7.) There would thus be two stages in the Lord's descent, as there had been before in His ascent. For as He went up from the grave to the highest heavens, He stopped on the earth by the way there, to meet His remnant and talk with them of the kingdom (Acts 1: 3); so, as He comes down from heaven to the earth He will stop in the air by the way, there to meet His church, or heavenly household, fashioned like unto His own glorious body, to conduct them to the Father's house.

But this day, or descent to the earth in flaming fire, shall find out its object. This will be the spirit of the Lord's mouth consuming, the brightness of His coming destroying the wicked — the sword out of the mouth of Him whose name is called "The Word of God." The Lord shall then meet the lawless one. The brightness of Him who comes in the glory of God shall meet him that comes according to the lying working of Satan, and set him aside for ever. But those in whom the truth dwells shall shine from above in that day. They shall be to the glory and admiration of the Lord in that day. (2 Thess. 1: 10) They are to be brought with Jesus in that day. (1 Thess. 4: 14) It is the day of the Lord, the day that brings Him forth to the judgment of darkness. It will be as the surprise of daylight upon night. The place of the Lord will be the day then; the world, the place of night and of darkness; and what communion can they have?

The contact must be in judgment, and not in concord. But the saints, who even. now are the spirit of the day, must be then in the place of the day. They are "children of the day." (1 Thess. 5: 5), and will be in the sphere out of which the day is to rise, and not in the sphere upon which it is to fall. The full power of the day will not be poured down without their presence.

They belong already to the truth, having believed the testimony (2 Thess. 1: 10 and 2: 13), and thus will appear in the train of Him who is called "Faithful and True," when He comes forth for the judgment of those who received not the love of the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (Rev. 19)

Thus the separation of the saints from the scene of judgment, or the place which the day of the Lord is to surprise, will be like that of Enoch's from the flood, and that was different from Noah's. Noah was carried through it, so that not a hair of his head was wet; but Enoch before it came had been translated to a place which the waters could not reach, or rather out of which the waters came. The Lord, accordingly, when speaking to the Jewish election, takes Noah for his text (Matt. 24); for the remnant, like Noah, are to be carried through the judgment. But our apostle in addressing the church takes his language rather from the translation of Enoch. (1 Thess. 4: 17; 2 Thess. 2: I.) And this was what the anxiety of the Thessalonian saints, touching themselves as the living saints, craved.

The apostle after this proceeds to describe the object of the righteous wrath of the day. He speaks of "the man of sin." "the son of perdition" — titles expressive of the character and the doom of the great enemy of God in the latter day — and I would shortly now consider that object.

This form of evil has been in some sense under the nurture of every age of corrupted Christendom; for from the beginning "the mystery of iniquity," as we here learn, has been at work. But he has not yet been manifested. Wickedness is in the ephah still, with the talent of lead upon it. (Zech. 5: 8) But ere the day of the Lord shall visit the earth the wicked one shall be revealed in the full form of Satan's creature. (2 Thess. 2: 9, 10) For Satan's beauty shall be upon him, his power in him, his seat given to him, and his captives shall serve him. He will thus, in a special and awful sense, be the workmanship of Satan, and he will exalt himself above every god (Dan. 11: 36), be like the Most High (Isa. 14: 14), set his heart as the heart of God (Ezek. 28: 6), and sit in the temple of God, as the apostle describes him, showing himself that he is God. He will say in his heart, "There is no God" (Ps. 14), and being such an one as this, it remains for the spirit of independency of God to bring him forth to perfection. A mere dark and superstitious system could not do this; there must be more than that, for he is to be king of all the children of pride. And there is nothing more signalises this present day of ours than this spirit in man which affects independency of God. There is abroad at present much that is like the getting ready of a temple wherein man may show himself to be God.

"See what manner of stones and what buildings are here!" is the language of every day, as man is now displaying to his fellow the art and workmanship of this busy age, the report of which now rapidly flies all the world over, promising, as men hope, to form all into one great confederate body.

Indeed, I do believe that Satan has now many and many a hand employed in erecting a suitable temple for the man of sin. I speak, of course, only of the spirit of it, and one knows not how long the building may continue, or how long the infant, who in spirit is now preparing to sit in it, may be in attaining his manhood, or (to which the heart turns from all this in sweet relief) how long the forbearance of God may wait on the repentance of sinners. For both the longsuffering of God is to have its blessed measure, and the tower which the children of men are building must again rise to its due elevation. The longsuffering of God, which is salvation, will lead all known to God to repentance (2 Peter 3), and the iniquity of the wicked be as a breach swelling out in a high wall.

The triumph over the wicked must be displayed in the moment of his fullest pride. The invitation to the banquet was given, not only for the first day, but for the second also, ere Esther made her request, to let Haman's heart be filled with thoughts of his greatness, so that he should fall before the righteous in the height of it all. But when the building shall be completed, and Satan's creature seated in it; when Satan, after his own manner, shall have fulfilled his own promise, "Ye shall be as gods" (Gen. 3: 5), then, upon his consummation, this full-grown form of evil, this manhood of iniquity, the doom of God will come, and the man of sin shall become the son of perdition. It will be the due and righteous mark for God's vengeance, the creature that shall draw down the lightning from the throne, and call forth "the brightness of his coming." (2 Thess. 2: 8), as the apostle here speaks, raising up the Lord again out of His holy habitation, to see and to confound the tower which the children of men have builded.

But it is not our immediate concern to know how long all this will go on. We have to do immediately with the Lord's descent from heaven to the air. And Paul frequently presents His appearing as the immediate object before the hope of the saints (Rom. 8: 23, 30; Rom. 13: 12; Rom. 16: 20; 1 Cor. 1: 7; 1 Cor. 11: 26; 1 Cor. 15: 23, 58; Phil. 1: 10; Phil. 3: 20; Phil. 4: 5; Col. 3: 4; 1 Tim. 6: 14; Titus 2: 13; 1 Thess. 1: 10); and in like manner the other apostles. (James 5: 7; 1 Peter 1: 5; 2 Peter 3: 12; Jude 21.) And so the apostle speaks of himself and of those to whom he was writing as remaining alive for the coming of the Lord, for we are drawn forth to that hope. We wait every moment, as it were, for redemption, having the earnest of it already. (Rom. 8: 23; Eph. 1: 14; Eph. 4: 30.) We wait for the coming, as the coming waits for our fulness. But nothing but that fulness, which is God's salvation (2 Peter 3: 15), do the apostles appear to me ever to contemplate as necessarily delaying it.

Thus (1) as to sufferings and persecutions: it is true they were to be, but they always address the saints as ever being more or less in them. (2) As to death: they speak of it as that through which the saints have already, in some sense, passed (Col. 3: 3), but never present it as the hope of the saint. (3) As to corruptions within the church: they certainly anticipate them, but still they guard that generation against them, speaking of corruptions even of the last days as having already appeared. (4) As to revival of the church: they never, I believe, promise it, or offer it as the hope of the saints. And (5) as to revolutions and political changes in the world: they never allude to them or instruct us about them. If in any sense Paul makes us acquainted with politics, it is with millennial politics; for, while he says nothing to us about the affairs of the present kingdoms of this world, he does tell us of the affairs of the kingdom of the Son of man, how all things are to be subdued to it, and then how it is itself to be delivered up. (1 Cor. 15: 24-26.) But till that kingdom come, he gives us no place in, or dependence upon, the changes in the nations. He would have us be subject to the powers of them, and to pray for their peace; but our heavenly hopes he does not suspend on any such earthly circumstances. In the exhortations even to patience, there is still the drawing nigh of the Lord. (James 5: 8; Heb. 10: 37.) In the old dispensation there was necessarily a delay, because they without us could not be made perfect. But now in our dispensation that needful perfection is come. (Heb. 10: 37; Heb. 11: 40.)

I therefore judge that our immediate hope, that of meeting the Lord in the air, does not necessarily wait for anything. His coming to the earth, I surely know, must wait for much. But that is not our first prospect. I do not say when the rapture will be. It may be more distant than our hope would have it, and hope deferred should make the heart sick. But the delay is not for the purpose of sickening the hearts of saints, but for saving the souls of sinners. "The longsuffering of God is salvation." We should remember that every moment of the delay, be it long or short. And our patience should be unmurmuring, as God's patience is saving and gracious. But I do not judge that the apostles teach us that there is a necessity for some events taking place before that patience ends in the rapture of the saints. There will be strange and awful events, trials and distress of nations such as never have been. And how soon we know not.

The saints, too, may be left here for much of all this (I say not otherwise); but their eye is not to be towards such things as their due object. Revolutions in the earth may go on without further delay, and help to show that the Lord is beginning to think of Israel, to pluck His hand out of His bosom, and to break His long silence towards His ancient people. But I do not judge that the saints necessarily wait on earth for any stage in that great and interesting action. Their rising into the air to meet their descending Lord is independent of it; an event, too, which is not, as I further judge, the subject of signs and tokens. The hour of it rests in the accomplishing of the number of the elect, and that is the Father's secret, of which no movements among the nations are the sign, or the harbinger. It waits for nothing necessarily, I believe, but the Father's pleasure touching His heavenly family, not even for the manifestation, much less for the destruction of that last and full form of evil, which is to bring the Lord, as we have already seen, in judgment down to the earth.

Something is to hinder this manifestation. (2 Thess. 2: 17) It has been an inquiry among the saints what this let or hindrance is, and no doubt it belongs to such a department of the revelation of God as must have us prepared to find a difference of judgment upon it. But such differences never touch, nor can they touch, "the unity of the Spirit." And it should be our desire, in the love of the Spirit, both to bear with one another in full peace, and to help one another's joy in the further knowledge of these, and all the ways of our blessed Lord.

Were I to speak particularly on this, I should say that it appears to me that we have to judge of the nature of that which hinders by the nature of that which is hindered. It was the presence of "the accursed thing" which in old time let or hindered the manifestation of the power of God, and, till it was removed, that holy power could not display itself. I refer to Achan in the camp of Israel. (Joshua 7) So the presence of the traitor hindered the Lord's expression of His own glory (John 13), but "when he was gone out," that glory was declared.

Now according to this it must be the presence of something good, something that is of God, that is now hindering the manifestation of the full power of Satan, and till that is "taken away" the wicked one cannot be displayed. It is not the way of evil to restrain evil, or of good to restrain good; each rather nourishes its own likeness, while it hinders the full operation of its opposite. It must therefore, I judge, be something good, something that God can own, which is to; katevcon, the letting thing here. But I say no more; for it may be more according to the mind of the Spirit to leave this alone as a secret. The Spirit of God leaves this letting thing, perhaps advisedly, undefined. But even that is enough to show us that the saints are not necessarily delayed here on earth. If that which hinders the revelation of the man of sin is not now to be known by the saints, they may know, even from that, that they do not necessarily wait here for such revelation; and that is all that I am pressing. It may be, I grant, that the letting thing is thus advisedly, in the wisdom of the Spirit, left as a secret.

But this I again say (having slightly noticed it before), that the heavenly people are a people not left like Noah but taken away like Enoch  - taken away, too, not by the day of the Lord or by judgment, as the antediluvian generation, but before that day or judgment like that heavenly man who "walked with God." For Enoch was a heavenly man; a man, I mean, of a heavenly destiny. And he was not on the earth when the judgment of the Lord visited it: he knew of it and prophesied of it (Jude 14), but he was not in it. Ere it came he had gone to heaven. And all this, I believe, savours of us and of our calling. We are a people destined to be taken away from the earth at some undefined moment, though instructed in its subsequent judgment. And when that judgment comes, we shall be in the train, and not before the face, of Him who executes it.

Enoch, as one taken away, is surely our pattern, and not the sinners in the days of Noah. For Enoch was taken away to heaven because "he pleased God"; they were taken away by judgment because "all flesh had corrupted his way" before Him.

Simple, happy, and yet serious lessons!

And surely we can have no doubt that the saints are not to wait on the earth for the coming of the Son of man. They wait for the "Son from heaven" (1 Thess. 1), that is, for the Son of God's descent from heaven to the air, and not for the Son of man's descent to the earth. All this persuades me more and more of the saints being removed before the day of the Lord visits the earth at all. It is not only that they shall be saved out of it, or taken away during it, but taken away before it surprises all them that are on the earth in the day of the coming of the Son of man, who is then to come as a thief.

Such are the great matters taught, I believe, in these epistles, the fear of the Thessalonian saints, as I have noticed, calling for the special comfort of these truths. And as connected with these truths, they show us also the path of the saints into the kingdom. And in that path there is something that is truly blessed. But it is a wondrous and divine subject, and we should remember, as with unshod feet, on whose paths we are treading. May the Lord ever keep and guide our thoughts!

The first stage in the glorious journey is the ascent of the saints, as we have seen, whether dead or alive, in their bodies of glory, to meet the Lord as He reaches the air in His descent from heaven. (1 Thess. 4) This is the coming which the saints now look for, and of which their Lord has said to them, "Behold, I come quickly." It is at this meeting with Him "in the air" that we shall (1 Thess. 2: 19) be presented to Himself, His own glorious and ransomed saints. This will be the redemption of the body. (Rom. 8) The vile body will be fashioned like unto His own glorious body. (Phil. 3) And this meeting will be in the gladness of a jubilee, for the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, and the church shall ascend with a responsive song: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Cor. 15)

And after thus meeting the Lord, and being thus presented to Himself, the next stage in the blissful way will conduct us to the Father. (1 Thess. 3: 13) The path of life will then be ours, beloved, as it has already been His, the path that leads to the Father, and thus to fulness of joy and everlasting pleasures. (Ps. 16) And this will be the full owning of the saints as children, as the next scene into which they are to pass, and which we will look at presently, will be the full owning of them as heirs. For the divine order is, "if children, then heirs." (Rom. 8)

But before I pass to the next stage in these paths of glory, I would observe that these stages in the way of Himself and the saints, the Lord in His own teaching had already presented to the faith of His disciples. For He had told them, that though they could not follow Him at that time (and He was then going to the Father), yet that they should follow Him afterwards, when He had prepared mansions in the same house of the Father for them. But before they should follow Him into that house, He told them also that He would come again, and receive them unto Himself — as the apostle speaks, meet them alone in the air. (John 13: 36; John 14: 3.)

So that in these words and promises the Lord in John's gospel had already opened these paths to the eye of faith: His own path to the Father, His coming back again to meet His saints, and then their all going together into the Father's house. They were to see Himself before they went into the prepared mansions of the Father's house, as here our apostle presents them meeting the Lord immediately on their, ascent into the air, and then, when thus joined with Him, but not till then, going into the Father's presence. (1 Thess. 3: 13) And I know not what language can more clearly express this than our Lord's own words, in the place I have referred to. Speaking of the Father's house, He says, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." He would first receive them to Himself, or meet them alone, and then conduct them into the Father's house. And these are the ascending paths of the saints. We shall have to trace a descending one presently; but in either direction they are still glorious, and the Lord is with them for ever.

And it is now, after the saints are at home with the Lord in the Father's house, I believe that, according to the language of the Jewish prophet, the Son of man comes to the Ancient of days and gets dominion (Dan. 7); or, according to the vision in the Apocalypse, the Lamb takes the book out of the right hand of Him that sits on the throne, and the church rejoices at the prospect of their speedy reign on the earth. (Rev. 5)

Then, in due season, the third stage in the path of glory will be trodden. Jesus, thus in power, will come down with His mighty angels in flaming fire to put away the wicked from the presence of His glory, and to be glorified in His saints. This we have also in our epistles. (2 Thess. 1: 7-10) This will be His coming in clouds — the clouds of heaven — not alone as when He met the church in the air, not yet with His saints in the character of the children of the Father, when He took them to their mansions, but with them as the "armies of heaven." He now comes with ten thousand of His saints, as the rider on the white horse, the heaven opening to let down the descending hosts of the Lord to execute judgment on the corrupters of the earth, and then to vindicate His title to the kingdoms of the world. (Matt. 24: 30; Matt. 26: 64; Jude 14; Rev. 1: 7; Rev. 19: 14.) And this will be the redemption of the inheritance. For the glory of the Lord shall survive all the scene of judgment, and the lovers of the truth shall have their place in it when the last lie and darkness of Satan and the world shall be set aside (2 Thess. 2: 14) for ever.

Then shall Jesus be seen as the king in His beauty. Every knee shall bow to Him. He shall sit on the throne of His glory, and His saints receive power with Him, according to their service. (Matt. 25: 31; Luke 19: 17.) This shall be the promised appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, which He shall show "who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords." (1 Tim. 6) And then shall one enemy after another be subdued to Him, till all close in the delivery up of the kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all. (1 Cor. 15: 28.)

Thus, beloved, our happy feet will first tread the heavenward way to meet the Lord Himself, and then by His own hand we shall be guided first to the home of love, and then to the throne of glory — the house of the Father, and the kingdom of the Son of man. And like these were the ways of Joseph and his brethren after their reconciliation; for Joseph first revealed himself to them in the secret of his own presence, commanding every one to go out from him but themselves; then he brought them in and presented them as his brethren to Pharaoh, seated in the seat that was higher than his; and finally he led them forth into the scene of his power and glory, and gave them the richest portion in the inheritance, above the people of the land. (See Gen. 16-47) And let me add that nothing will be lost as we go onward. The joy of the Lord's own presence and the fulness of the Father's house will still be ours after we have entered upon the rule of the kingdom, and ours, beloved, for ever.

Surely we may say, in a deeper sense than even David, our God has spoken to us of our house for a great while to come, even for ever. And again, in a deeper sense than even he, may we not also say: What are we, that we should be brought hitherto? (2 Sam. 7: 18, 19) For His word's sake, and according to His own heart, He has done all these things. (2 Sam. 7: 21) His own love must account for it all; nothing else can. The lowest are exalted the highest. Angels are passed by, and the seed of Abraham taken up. (Heb. 2) The separated Jew is passed by, and sinners of the Gentiles taken up; the tattered prodigal gets the best robe, and he that ate swine's husks, the fatted calf; for grace, the riches and glory of the grace must be displayed, and these are its ways, its blissful ways. It is only for us, beloved, to tread softly here where all is defiled, till our feet travel these paths of joy and glory without fear of thorn or stain for ever.

These great things of God's counsels are thus noticed in these epistles to the Thessalonian saints. They had come forth from an idolatrous world to own the living God in the midst of it, and to wait for His Son from heaven, and the Holy Ghost here feeds their enlarging desires.

But the apostle had to notice also some evil that was among them. He had to admonish as well as comfort, and to pray not only that their hearts might be comforted, but established in every good word and work. (2 Thess. 2: 17) For some of them had ceased "to labour with their hands." It may be that this had been the fruit of some corrupt view of their great distinguishing doctrine, the coming of the Lord. For it is Satan's way, if he cannot rob us of truth, to corrupt it while it is still in our hand. The Thessalonians were zealous, they had come to meet the Lord with purpose of heart, but this had become connected with a desertion of their quiet, industrious, private walk. But he does not condemn this zeal, or seek to correct the evil by withdrawing the Lord's coming from their view. We have seen that it is rather his great subject; but he desires for them that they might be in patient, and not disorderly, waiting for it, and urges this duty upon them by reminding them of his example and his precepts while he was among them. For he had been a labourer for his own support at Thessalonica, this having been so ordered in the provisional wisdom of God, who now by His Spirit uses that fact for the admonition and guidance of the saints there.

Such, I judge, was the standing and character of the church at Thessalonica, with their peculiar doctrines and anxieties, and the apostle's teaching upon them. Eminent they were for simplicity of faith, brotherly love, and desire for the return of the Lord; but withal, as we have seen, needing further light on the ways of the Lord, and also rebuke and admonition for some of their own ways. But above all that, I would again, in closing, press on the thoughts of my brethren, as it was that which was the chief point of attraction to my own mind, this — that we have here the doctrine of the rapture of the saints, whether "sleeping" or "alive," to meet their Lord "in the air" before He touches the earth.

This rapture into the air may be called resurrection, but it is ascension as well as resurrection, and the church's history is included between the resurrection or ascension of the Lord, and this her own resurrection or ascension. The one gave her life and sent her on her wilderness journey, a stranger on the earth, the other will close her wilderness journey, and take her to her home in heaven.

But these resurrections of the Lord and the church are peculiar. They are resurrections from the dead. It was Sadducean pravity to deny resurrection of the dead, and that doctrine is numbered among Jewish principles in Hebrews 6. But a resurrection from the dead was something quite beyond a Jewish measure of faith. The disciples questioned what it could mean when the Lord spake of it (Mark 9: 10), and an allusion to it quite crossed and passed by all Martha's thoughts, though she presented a fair standard of the nation's faith. (John 11: 24-26) When she spoke of a resurrection at the last day, the Lord told her of a power of resurrection in Himself which would not wait for the last day, but would act in a manner that should gloriously forestall all other resurrections, by a resurrection worthy of Him who is "the resurrection and the life." And this alone is a resurrection in the power of the presence of the Spirit of God. (Rom. 8: 11) This was the resurrection of the Lord Himself, a resurrection from the dead, and this will be the resurrection of those that are His not "at the last day," as Martha or the Jew might once have spoken, but "at his coming," as the Spirit in the church now speaks. (1 Cor. 15: 23)

The patriarchs of the Jewish family all put special value on their dead bodies; they were religiously laid up in Machpelah, and this care and zeal of theirs was the confession of their sure and certain hope of resurrection. But they connected resurrection with the land of Canaan. And therefore Jacob and Joseph, who died in Egypt, provided that their bones should be carried over and laid in Canaan, thus telling us that their hope of resurrection was the same as their hope of final possession of the promised land. All this, it is true, was perfect in those who had but earthly resurrection hopes.

But the church has a higher hope. Heaven and ascension into the air are now before her; Canaan and resurrection from the grave of Machpelah were before the patriarchs. She has already in spirit gone on high with Christ, and is looking for the day when she shall ascend after Him to meet Him in a glorified body. And this alone is perfect in her as her former hope was perfect in them; for each is in season with the enlarging mind and grace of God towards us. The patriarchs were to die, and they looked for resurrection and the land under God. (Gen. 1: 24, 25) The church is risen, and looks for ascension and heaven with the glorified Lord. (Phil. 3: 20, 21)

And this resurrection or ascension of the saints is, as I have already observed, that which is to close the dispensation of the church, as the resurrection or ascension of the Lord opened it; like the two passages which opened and closed the wilderness to Israel.

And we stand, beloved, on the banks of Jordan. It is the wilderness still, and the Manna and the Rock are wanted still. But it is also the skirts of the glory; our salvation is nearer than when we believed. "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." The Holy Ghost, sent down already from heaven, is in us (1 Cor. 6: 19), the harbinger of approaching daylight. He makes us already "children of light, and the children of the day." (1 Thess. 5: 5) "It is high time to awake." Let us only rise and look out, and we may see the streaks of the morning. The spirit of the day is in us, the pledge that it will itself soon break in glory on our heads.

But there was, it is true, a lingering on the banks of the Jordan. The host of God waited till a certain mission into the defiled land of the Amorites was over. Certain spies went into the land of judgment. (Joshua 2) The sin of the Amorites was then full, and Joshua's sword might have entered at once. But there was a moment of respite, and it proved salvation. It was a standing at the very door of the doomed house, and knocking, if haply any one would even then open the door. And so it was, a, poor defiled sinner of the place arose at the bidding, and moved with fear prepared an ark for the saving of her house. She was in the place of death and judgment; but mercy was made to rejoice. there, and her house with the scarlet thread hanging from the window became another blood-sprinkled lintel, and the angel of destruction again passed on.

And so do we now wait. The glory has not yet broken, but waits for the appointed mission of grace to go and do its work. The longsuffering of God is salvation, He being not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3) We wait till the body be completed in all its holy and appointed measure, till all have come in the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man. Then the power of death shall give way before the feet of the priests again. (Joshua 3) "For if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." (Rom. 8: 11) If we thus, as sons and priests of God, carry the ark of the Lord, the waters shall not withstand our passage. We have the hidden life, and that is above the power of death.

These, and richer and better than these, or than heart can conceive, are the ways of Him who hath loved us. They are telling, and will still tell us, that God is love, and that in blessing He is doing His work, and in manifesting grace to the unworthy, showing Himself. We now learn what grace is in all its varied resources, and our feet shall by-and-by tread one path after another, that we may learn what glory is. Since Jesus rose we have found every path in the desert a path of grace; but glory is still before us. Its paths we do not yet tread, as Joshua said to the people on the banks of Jordan, anticipating their speedy passage through it: "Ye have not passed this way heretofore." (Joshua 3: 45)

But, surely, we need not fear the dazzling paths. The hand that divided the Red Sea will, with equal ease, divide the Jordan. He that raised up Christ from the dead, will also quicken our mortal bodies to the same glory. It is as yet an untrod way, it is true; but the hand of the Lord is the same. It is not the glory of Christ that is the great thing. It is the cross of Christ that is the great thing, and that is ours already. If God has given us His suffering Son, it will be found a small and easy thing (to speak after the manner of men) to give us His glorious Son. If we know that Jesus, bowing His head on the tree, is ours, we may well know that Jesus, exalted in highest glory, will be ours; the pledge is sure, and then as there was the pillar of twelve stones, a stone for every tribe, so will there be the abiding praise of all His saints to speak the riches of grace and glory for evermore.

"Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever."

The Claims of God's Sovereignty and Holiness

The Claims of God's Sovereignty and Holiness.

Numbers 1 - 4.

Christian Friend 1895 p. 260.

These chapters have been just awakening in my mind some meditations of interest, at least, in connection with other scriptures. I perceive in them an expression of God's jealousy of His sovereignty, and of His holiness, of His rights as Lord of the people, and as the God of their Sanctuary.

They open with His commandment to Moses to take the number of the tribes, and this is done with great exactness and care. The number of each tribe, except Levi, is again and again set down in Numbers 1 and Numbers 2, and that of Levi in like manner in Numbers 3 and Numbers 4. This was an expression of His rights as Lord of Israel. He had title to take their number, for they were all His own. Had He not had a right to them, had He not prospects in them, He would not have counted their sum, as is said of His divine title in another part of His dominions, "He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names." This is the expression of His sovereignty amid the heavenly hosts. (Psalm 147: 4.) So the Lord says of His saints, "They shall be Mine . . . in that day when I make up My jewels." (Mal. 3) He may make up; i.e., number, and hide, and secure them, because they are His own.

He was careful thus to assert His title, and survey His possessions. He would have the number of Israel exactly brought to Him, for they were all His own. He called them by their names, and knew their numbers.

It was an offence against this peculiar right of the Lord that David was guilty of. He affected something of the divine glory, when he sought to number Israel, as though they had been his own people. It savoured of the old attempt of Adam, and was done under the influence of the same spirit. It was a trespass on the divine rights, and an affront to the majesty of Him who was Lord and King of Israel, who might number Israel because they were His peculiar treasure. But this care and jealousy respecting His rights as Sovereign of Israel, is accompanied in those chapters with the same jealousy respecting His holiness in the sanctuary of Israel.

The Levites are separated from the midst of the people, to be the peculiar servants of the sanctuary, and from their midst the house of Aaron is, in like manner, separated, to be the only priesthood of that sanctuary. Israel was not to affect the services of the Levites, nor were the Levites to affect the priesthood of the family of Aaron. God was to be sanctified in them that drew near to Him, and to be approached in His holiness in the due and ordained order.

But even more than this. Aaron himself had not to trespass, or to advance too far, even in his own appointed place. He was not to eye the sanctuary anxiously. When the camp moved onward, the sacred vessels of the house of God were to be duly and reverently hid from the eyes of even the bearers of them, and the Ark itself from the eye of even Aaron. All this order of the house, in its servants and priesthood, and the deep reverence to be paid to those mysteries which it contained, tell out the sensitiveness of the holiness of Him, whose house, and servants, and priesthood, it all was. The nearest possible place He would take to His people, dwelling in their very midst, and going before them, as long as they continued their journey in the chariot of the cloudy, fiery pillar, by night and by day, whether their way lay right onward, or whether it were back again by the sea and the mountain, being the willing and serviceable Companion of their travels. But still, He was God. He was the Sanctifier, and they but the sanctified. And this could never be foregone, nor allowed to want its abiding and most jealous witness, for a single hour. Whether moving, or at rest, this must be had in remembrance. He will declare both His sovereign power, and His unapproachable holiness; He will testify His rights both as Lord, and as God of Israel, though His blessing and His service, and His land of desire, shall be theirs.

Such are the truths brightly reflected in these chapters — in the commandment to take the number of the people, and in the watchfulness to guard all the avenues of the sanctuary. As the vengeance taken upon David, for the intrusion upon the rights of the King of Israel, is a witness to us of the divine jealousy over those rights, not allowing, for a moment, another to assume them, so the vengeance upon the men of Beth-shemesh, for looking into the ark, is a kindred witness of the same divine jealousy, touching the place and holiness of the God of Israel.

How all this commends itself to our souls! We bow with delight to these claims of the Lord. We rejoice to know that He dwells in light, that no man can approach unto, and that Him no man has seen, though He, who is in His bosom, has declared Him. All that is just as our souls would have it, and as this scripture displays before us! J. G. B.

Jesus Christ come in flesh

Jesus Christ come in flesh.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 6 p. 56.

The ark and the camp were, in some sense, necessary to each other during the journey through the wilderness. The ark, seated in the tabernacle on which the cloud rested, had to guide the camp; and the camp, in its order, had to accompany and guard the ark and all connected with it.

This was the business of the camp. There was to be subjection to the will of Him who dwelt in the cloud; dependence on Him who led them daily; conscious liberty because of having left Egypt behind them, and hope because of having Canaan before them. Such a mind as this was to be in the camp; but its business was to conduct the mystic house of God onward to its rest, "the possession of the Gentiles."

Then journeying through that desert would not have constituted divine pilgrimage. Many a one had travelled that road without being a stranger and pilgrim with God. In order to be such, the ark must be in their company.

The mind of the camp, of which I have spoken, might betray its weakness, or forget itself, and this might lead, as we know it did, to chastening again and again. But if its business, of which I have also spoken, were given up, there would be loss of everything. And this did come to pass. The tabernacle of Moloch was taken up, instead of the ark of Jehovah, and the camp, therefore, had its road diverted to Damascus or Babylon, far away from the promised Canaan. (Amos 5: 25; Acts 7: 13.)

And thus it is with ourselves. We are to maintain those truths or mysteries which the tabernacle and its furniture represented: and the Apostle commits our entrance into Canaan to that. "If ye continue in the faith;" and again, "if ye keep in memory what I have written unto you." Our safety, our rest in the heavenly Canaan, depends on our keeping the truth.

This, however, is to be added — that not merely for our own safety sake, but for Christ's honour is the truth to be kept.

This is to be much considered. Supposing, for a moment, that our own safety were not concerned in it, Christ's honour is, and that is enough. Such a thing is contemplated in 2 John 10: the elect lady was inside the house, — she was in personal safety, but she has a duty to perform to "the doctrine of Christ;" so that if one come to her door, and bring not that doctrine, she must keep him outside, and refuse to have him where she is.

Title to entrance is confession to that doctrine, a confession of "Jesus Christ come in the flesh," a confession that involves or secures the glory of His person. A full confession to His work will not do. The one outside may bring with him a sound faith as to the atonement, sovereignty of grace, and like truths; but all this is not a warrant for letting him in. There must be confession to the person also. "Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God: he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son; if there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds."

Surely this is clear and decided. I believe that this is much to be considered. The truth touching Christ's person is to be maintained by us, even though our souls safety were not involved in it. I grant that our salvation is involved. But that is not all. He who owns not that truth is to be kept outside. It imparts tenderness as well as strength to see that the name of Jesus in thus entrusted to the guardianship of the saints. This is what we owe Him if not ourselves.*

*The wall of partition is to be raised by the saints between them and Christ's dishonour.

Those journeying from Egypt to Canaan will not do. Let the journey be attended with all the trial of such an arid, unsheltered, and trackless road, still it is not divine pilgrimage. A mere toilsome, self-denying life, even though endured with that moral courage which becomes pilgrims, will not do. There must be the carriage of the ark of God, confession to the truth, and maintenance of the name of Jesus.

Now, in John's Epistles, the name "Jesus Christ" expresses or intimates, I believe, the deity of the Son. The Holy Ghost, or the Unction, so filled the mind of that apostle with the truth, that "the Word" which had been "made flesh" was God, that though he speaks of Him by a name which formally expresses the Son in manhood or in office, with John that is no matter. The name is nothing — at least nothing that can interfere with the full power of prevailing assurance, that He is "that which was from the beginning," the Son in the glory of the Godhead. This is seen and felt at the very opening of the first epistle, and so, I believe, throughout. (1 John 1: 3, 7; 1 John 2: 1; 1 John 3: 23; 1 John 4: 2; 1 John 5: 20; 2 John 3-7.)

In the thoughts of this epistle, "Jesus Christ" is always this divine One, so to speak, the eternal Life manifested. With John, "Jesus Christ" is "the true God." Jesus is the "he" and the "him" in the argument of his first epistle; and this "he" and "him" ever keeps before us One who is God, though in assumed relations and covenant dealings.

The confession, therefore, which is demanded by them is this — that it was God who was manifested, or who came in the flesh. (See 1 John 4: 2; 2 John 7.) For in these epistles, as we have now seen, "Jesus Christ" is God. His name as God is Jesus Christ. And it is assumed or concluded that "the true God" is not known, if He who was in the flesh, Jesus Christ, be not understood as such; and all this simply because He is God. Any other received as such is an idol. (1 John 5: 20, 21.) The soul that abides not in this doctrine "has not God," but he who abides in it "has both the Father and the Son." (2 John 9.)

This, I judge, is the mind and import of the required confession that "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." I here speak of God under the name of Jesus Christ, and it is, therefore, the demand of a confession to the great mystery of "God manifested in the flesh."

The very adjunct (as another Has written to me), "come in the flesh," throws strongly forward the deity of Christ; because if He were a man, or anything short of what He is, it would be no such wonder that He should come in the flesh. And verses 2 and 3 of chapter 1 guide us to John's thoughts in the use of the name "Jesus Christ." That which was from the beginning, the eternal Life which was with the Father, was the Person he declared to them. The words "with the Father" are important, making it evident that the Son was the eternal One, the name of this eternal Son being Jesus Christ. And it is interesting to compare the close with the commencement of this epistle — "this is the true God and the [with the article] eternal life."

I desire to bless the Lord for giving my soul fresh assurance on such simple ground of Scripture, that this duty lies on us of maintaining the honour of the name of Jesus.*

*In the course of our Lord's journey on earth, we see Him in the following ways.

1. As the born One — holy, meeting God's mind in the nature or human material.

2. As the circumcised One — perfect under the law, meeting God's mind in it.

3. As the baptised One — meeting God's mind in dispensational order and righteousness.

4. As the anointed One — meeting God's mind as His image or representative.

5. As the devoted One — meeting God's mind in the covenant of grace to sinners.

6. As the risen One — sealed with God's approval in victory for sinners.

Thus does He meet all the mind of God while providing for us. All was magnified in Him and by Him, all made honourable. God's proposed delight in man, or glory by Him, has been richly answered in the blessed Jesus. While in His person He was "God manifest in the flesh," in the succession of His stages through the earth He was accomplishing all the divine purpose, delight, and glory, in man. Nothing unworthy of God was in the man Christ Jesus, His person, experiences or ways.

The Nearness of the Glory

The Nearness of the Glory.

Six papers by J. G. Bellett.

The thought of the nearness of the glory should be deeply cherished by the heart. And we need be at no effort to persuade ourselves of it. It is taught us richly in the Word. The place of the glory is near us, and the path by which it can either come to us or we go to it is short and simple, and the moment for the taking of the journey may be present in the twinkling of an eye.

"Whom He justifies, them He also glorifies," is a sentence which tells us of the path or title to the glory. We need nothing but the justifying faith of Jesus. When by faith we stand washed and sanctified through the blood, we are at once made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. Our persons need no further adorning. We are clean every whit, presentable without fault before the presence of the glory, whether that glory be still hid within its veil, or to be manifested tomorrow.

Nor can we say when it may please the Lord of the glory to appear. But this we know that He is ever near and can show Himself in His high and bright estate in a moment.

The congregation was set at the door of the tabernacle to acquaint themselves with their High Priest. They did so. They took knowledge of the consecration and services of Aaron, and on the accomplishing of these services, the glory appeared. It was waiting at the door, within its proper veil, to do this, and show itself. All it needed was title to take its little journey, in finding an object worthy of its visitation. And as soon as the congregation stand in the value of the blood of Christ, or appear in the character which the priestly services and sacrifices of Jesus impart to it, then the glory, reading its title to appear in finding an object worthy of its visitation makes it short journey, and shines around the camp. And it shines around to gladden them; not to alarm but to gladden. They were entitled and prepared to be gladdened by it, for they stood in the value and cleansing of Jesus. Its place was theirs; and the atmosphere it brought with it their native air.

But there are other witnesses to the nearness of the glory. A light surprised the persecutor as he journeyed from Jerusalem to Damascus. It was above the brightness of the sun at noonday. And well it might have been, for it was a beam from the land of the glory, and it bore the Lord of glory upon it (see Isa. 24: 23).

Happy to know from such a witness, how near that place of glory is to us. For as in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye that glory was here! Jesus' power present, and it came. He commanded and it was here.

But it did not come to display itself. It came for other business, on another errand altogether. It came to make the persecutor of the unoffending flock of Christ a native of that very land where this glory of Christ dwelt.

It begins therefore, by laying the persecutor himself in ruins. It shines around him, and he falls to the earth. It is the light of Gideon's pitchers confounding the armies of the uncircumcised. Saul takes the sentence of death into himself. With a vengeance he knows that he has been kicking against the pricks; madly destroying himself in all his enmity against Jesus, for that Jesus was the Lord of the glory. But the One that wounded can heal, the One that kills can make alive. "Rise and stand upon thy feet," says the Lord of this glory. Life comes from Him who could wield the power of death — life infallible, and indestructible — life with inheritance of this very glory. And he is made the witness of the same life and inheritance to all kinds of sinners, kings, Gentiles, and people of Israel.

What a business is this! The glory, and the Lord of the glory come to do it. Never had such points in the furthest distance met before. The persecutor of the flock and the Saviour of the flock are beside each other. The Lord of the glory and the sinner whom the glory was consuming are here.

Can we trust all this and be glad in it? Is it pleasant to us to think that the glory is thus near us; that at the bidding of its Lord, or to carry, like a chariot, its Lord, it could be here in a moment? Stephen saw it thus, as by an upward glance of his closing eye. And when the voice of the Archangel heralds it, and the trump of God summons it, it will be here again to enfold us and bear us up to its native land (1 Thess. 4, 1 Cor. 15).

It visited Saul, but left him as its heir and expectant, to travel and to toil down here for his appointed day. But when it visits us, it will not leave us here any longer as its expectants, for awhile strangers and foreigners in the earth, but takes us home with itself ever to be with the Lord — the Lord of the glory (1 Cor. 2: 8; James 2: 1).

Till then like Paul, we may "obtain help of the Lord," and testify of what we are, and of what we shall be. But it is all service in a foreign land, with this cherishing gladdening thought, that the native land is near us, and our translation asks but for a moment, for the twinkling of an eye. The title is simple, the path is short, and the journey soon taken. "Whom He justifies, them He also glorifies."

Bethany.

God is the living God and as such He is acting in this scene of death. He came into the midst of it as the living God. He could not have come otherwise. We may say He has not been here, if He has not been here as the living God. And His victory is in resurrection. If resurrection be denied, then, that the living God has been here, that God has interfered with the condition of this ruined death-stricken world is denied also.

It is blessed to see this, very sure and simple as a truth, and the secret or principle of the divine way in this fallen creation from the beginning. Into Himself as the living God, into Himself or the resources which His own glory or nature provided, God has retreated, apart from the world that has involved itself in death. Again I say, this truth, this mystery, is sure and simple, full of blessedness, and that which, of necessity, has marked His way in this world. If His creature has been untrue, His creature of highest dignity, set by Him over the works of His hand, if Adam had disappointed Him, revolted and brought in death, surely God has to look to Himself, to draw from Himself, and there in His own resources, in the provision which He Himself supplies, He finds the remedy. And this is, in His victory as the living God, which victory is resurrection, His own resource of life in despite of the conquest of sin and death, let those conquests take what form they may.

I am looking only at one, but as I judge, a very vivid sample of this. Bethany in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, a village on the other side of Mount Olivet, in the Scriptures of the Evangelists, shows itself to us as a happy, sacred, and mystic spot. It was happy, for there the Lord Jesus found, if anywhere, a home on the earth. It was sacred, for there He had some of the most intimate communion with His elect, which His spirit ever enjoyed. It was mystic, for there He exhibited this truth or mystery which I am speaking of, His victory as the living God.

Lazarus, His friend in Judea, Lazarus of Bethany, had died. They had buried him — all they could do — the service of a fallen creature. The dead can bury the dead — right it is in them to do so — but that is all they can do.

The Lord was then absent. But He comes, in due season, to awaken His friend out of sleep, to raise Him whom His friends buried. He reveals Himself in full suited character, the character suited to that moment, and in which He had come into this world. "I am the resurrection and the life," He says. Bethany at that moment afforded Him His proper material to work upon. Sin had there reigned unto death. Man had there just reaped the wages of sin. Lazarus had died. The sentence, "in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," had not been cancelled. That could not be. And now it had been afresh executed in this elect one of God in the land of Judea. But the Son of God, the living God Himself, comes to do His work, as sin and death had just done theirs.

Bethany thus became a mystic spot. It was now not only a happy place, and a sacred place, it was also a mystic place. It had now exhibited God's great principle, the victory of the living God in this death-stricken world. This is the character it acquires, under John's Gospel: and in this character the Lord enjoys it in the same Gospel — I mean, in the next chapter. There the Lord sits as in the midst of the risen family. He is at Bethany after it has acquired its mystic character. It has been constituted the expression of God's way in this world where sin is reigning; and now the Lord enjoys it. He is there as with the risen family. In spirit He is in the millennial world, and as the King sitting at the table, the spikenard of His worshippers sendeth forth its goodly smell.

This was the first use to be made of Bethany, or of God's own great and ruling principle, His victory over death, or His glory as the living God. He enjoys it in the bosom of His elect (see John 11: 12).

He has, however, more to do with Bethany than this. If He first enjoys it in the midst of His own, He must also resort to it as His relief from the disappointments which He was suffering from all that He had been trusting, so that He may get an answer as from Himself, and find satisfaction there, let all beside disappoint Him as they may.

This is seen in Matthew 21. Jerusalem had, at that moment disappointed Him. He had sought her as His chosen seat of royalty in the earth, and had offered Himself in all solemnity to her as her King; but Israel would not, and He retires to Bethany. An action simple in itself, but full of significance, telling us that He has in Himself, in His doings and victories as the living God, resources that will never fail Him and never disappoint Him.

This is very full of meaning and of interest. But this is what He has been doing in this world from the beginning. Let death appear, let the judgment of sin be ready to be executed, whether in the garden of Eden, in the earth before the Flood, in the land of Egypt or of Canaan, in the midst of Israel, or wider still, in the whole world itself. We ever see Him acting as the living God, providing atonement for sin, the principle of death, and bringing forth a living people from the midst of the scene of righteous doom and judgment of death. Bethany had already been constituted this to Him, the witness of this; and now when need arises, when fresh disappointment from the creature whom He had trusted, comes, He uses Bethany in this character. And I may say, when He retired to Bethany, He retreated to Himself and His own resources.

Boldness in the Day of Judgment.

1 John 4: 7.

John says, teaching us under the Holy Ghost, "Herein is love with us made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is so are we in this world." A most wondrous and very blessed Scripture (1 John 4: 17).

John himself afterwards experienced the boldness, of which this Scripture speaks, in a very remarkable way. He had his own doctrine made good to his spirit by the same hand that taught him the doctrine.

In the Isle of Patmos he was introduced to a day of judgment. The revelation he got there of the Lord Jesus Christ, was a revelation of Him in judicial glory. He saw the Son of Man standing among the golden candlesticks with white garments, eyes of flame of fire, a voice as of many waters, a countenance as of the sun in his strength, and with feet as though they burnt in a furnace. A solemn, terrible exhibition of Christ in the place of judgment, all this was. John falls to the earth as one dead. But the Lord tells him not to fear, speaking to him as the One who had been dead and was alive again, having the keys of hell and of death. That is, He imparts to the spirit of His saint, then in the presence of judicial glory, all the virtue of His own condition. Jesus was there, through death and resurrection, holding in His grasp all the power of the enemy, for He had the keys of hell and of death. Such an One speaks comfortably to John. He imparts, as I said, the virtue of His own condition to His saint, though in a day of judgment. As He Himself was, so would He have John to be, even in the place of victory, the other side of judgment (Rev. 1).

This was surely wonderful and full of blessing. And John at once feels the power of it, and acquires "boldness" in that "day of judgment." For, though the Son of Man is still before him in the same attire and character as he had already seen Him, in judicial glory, with eyes of flame and feet as though they burnt in a furnace, and a countenance like as the sun shineth in his strength, John has boldness and then he listens to the voice challenging the churches again and again, but he remains unmoved from beginning to end.

This is very beautiful, and has a great character in it. But still more. Another scene of judgment succeeds this of the Son of Man walking among the candlesticks, and John is set in the presence of it. He is carried or summoned by the sound of a trumpet to heaven, preparing itself for the execution of judgment. The thrones were there, thrones of judgment — for the elders are seen clothed in white raiment, befitting those seated in judgment. Voices, lightnings, and thunders, instruments of wrath or witnesses that the Lord was rising up out of His holy place for judgment, proceeded out of the throne. And from thence, as we proceed through the Book, all that succeeds is in character; trumpets, vials, fire, smoke, earthquakes, and other terrible sights and symbols, enough to make another Moses quake, as in the day of Sinai. But John maintains the "boldness" he had already acquired, and all through is as unmoved as the living creatures and the crowned elders themselves. They were on high, he was still "in this world"; they were glorified, but he still in the body, yet he is as calm as they. As they were so was he. And when the terrible sealed book is seen in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne, and a loud voice as of a mighty angel challenges all to loose it, instead of dreading the moment when such an awful volume should be opened, he weeps because no one was found equal to do so. He longs to have the secret of the throne disclosed. The day of judgment has no terror for him. He is "as" Christ, and has "boldness."

But this security — God's own calmness and assurance in the day of judgment — has had its witness or expression in different forms, again and again, in the course of God's dealing with His elect. As in the time of the flood, in the day of the overthrow of Sodom, at the time of the exodus, and also at the time of the passage of the Jordan.

These were days of judgment; but the security thrown round the elect, on each of them, was divine; it was God's own safety which He then imparted to His people. They were in the world when its judgment was executing; but we may say, as he was then, so were they. His safety was theirs.

The Lord God shut Noah in the ark, with His own hand, ere the waters began to rise. The waters were then the instruments of divine wrath. but the divine hand had shut the door upon Noah. And surely those waters of judgment could no more prevail against the hand of God than they could against his throne. And therefore, as the Lord was, so was Noah. This safety was a common one, wondrous to tell it.

So even such an one as Lot in another day of judgment. He was saved so as by fire — out of the fire. A salvation in no wise glorious to himself. He suffered loss, for his works were all burnt up. But the angel said, he could do nothing till Lot was fully and clean delivered out of all possible danger from the judgment. The angel could do nothing till then. And I ask, was not this divine security?

In the night of Egypt, He who carried the sword had already appointed the blood. He to whom the vengeance belonged, the Judge who was conducting the judgment, had ordained and pledged the deliverance. "When I see the blood, I will pass over." Was not this imparting His own security to His people again? The Lord must deny Himself — and this He cannot do — or Israel must be safe. Israel may have the same "boldness" in that "day of judgment," as the Lord Himself, though Israel was in the land through which the sword was going.

And so in the passage of the Jordan. The waters were there as in the day of Noah, ready to overflow their banks, as in the time of barley harvest. But the priests were in the midst of them, and the ark or presence of God. And there they stood, the ministers of God and the presence of God, till all the people had crossed the river. Jesus was in the vessel, and He must sink, if the disciples did. The safety of the ark was the safety of the camp. As it was, so were they. Nothing less than divine security was that of Israel amid the swelling of the Jordan. The judgment of Canaan was about to begin, but lsrael was in God's sanctuary.

All this surely witnesses how the Lord imparts Himself, or shares His condition with His elect — and that too in the day of their most solemn necessity, so to speak. He is beyond judgment, above it, the Executor of it, but the value of His own place He communicated to these elect ones of old in days of judgment.

But this boldness of ours has a new character in it. It flows from "perfect love." God has put the value of the Son of the bosom upon us; and it is not possible for love to take any higher counsels or do any more wondrous work than that. The love that has set the value of the Son upon us is a perfect love. And our boldness, therefore, is confirmed not merely by the hand or by the ordinance of God, but by His heart. Noah or Israel or even Lot, in their several days of judgment, might have said "as He is, so are we." God's safety was theirs. But we resolve our security now into the love of God, as they did into the hand or ordinance of God. The security is equal but ours is the witness of a nearer, more affecting title. Ours is personal. Noah was in the ark, we are in God. "He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God." And in a new sense we say, "as He is, so are we." We are loved as He is, not merely secured as He is. We have an element of full personal affection investing our spirits as well as an element of boldness.

Jacob.

Genesis 28: 10 - 20: 32.

Jacob had offended the Lord, having taken the way of nature, listening to the counsel of unbelief and thus departing from his path and his call as a saint of God. He is therefore put under discipline — for he has to learn the bitterness of his own way.

His place, that very night on which he left his father's house, witnessed, therefore, the hand of the Lord who still loved him. It was, no doubt, the fruit and ways of his own transgression, but it told also that God was his God, for that He was visiting him in fatherly chastening. It is, accordingly, such a place as God may own. It was not sin but discipline that marked it. Had it been the tent where he and his mother had dressed the kids for Isaac's feast, God could not have owned it — for deceit and fraud were practised there. But at Luz, where Jacob is under chastening, the Lord can be — and He does come and manifest Himself there.

He comes to make glory a great reality to this poor solitary, disciplined saint. He does not come to soften his pillow, or to change his condition, or to send him back to the home of his father and the care of his mother. He leaves the present fruit of Jacob's naughtiness just as bitter as he found it. But He does come to make glory and heaven a great reality to him.

Onwards, therefore, Jacob goes, and as the story tells us, he served twenty years under a certain hard taskmaster in Padan-aram. But the Lord blesses him there, and he conducts himself in the fear of the Lord there, and all is well.

In due time he is on his way back to Canaan. But indeed it is a different Jacob as well as a different journey. He was an empty Jacob at Bethel, he is a full Jacob at Peniel. He has become two bands. Flocks and herds and servants and wives and children tell of his prosperity. He had been on that road twenty years before, unfriended and alone, with a staff in his hand, but now we see him thus accompanied and surrounded. He has become a rich man. He has a stake in the world. He has something to lose, and may be a prey to others, as he surely must be an object with them.

He hears of Esau coming and four hundred men with him. He trembles. He fears for his cattle, his people and his life. He manages as well as he can, and religiously commits all to the Lord — but unbelief has mastered his heart and he is in fear of Esau.

The Lord comes to him, therefore, His second time — now on his journey homeward, as He had been with him on his journey out. But it is in a new character. He was only under discipline then, he is in the power of unbelief now: and the Lord comes, not to comfort, but to rebuke and restore him.

"There wrestled a man with him till the breaking of the day." This was the Lord in controversy with Jacob. His unbelieving fears touching Esau and his four hundred men had provoked the Lord to jealously and He withstands him.

But what is the issue of all this? Grace is made a great reality to Jacob here, as glory had been at Bethel. The wrestling Stranger, in abounding grace, allows Himself to be prevailed over by the weak and timid Jacob, and the Spirit works revival of faith in his soul. "I will not let thee go, except Thou bless me" says he. He comes "boldly to the throne of grace." Faith is decided, and a blessing must be imparted. And Jacob becomes Israel. Grace is now made a great reality to him as before glory had been. It is now the unbelieving Jacob restored, as then it had been the chastened Jacob comforted. The Gospel is pressed on his soul here, heaved had been opened to his eye there. There he walked as at the gate of heaven and in the house of God, here he walks under the shinings of the presence of God. There Christ was making him promises, here Christ is giving him fresh embraces of love.

Such was "Bethel" on his way out, such is "Peniel on his way home. Such is God to him according to his need and condition. Heaven in its bright enriching glory was shown to him in the day of his sorrow, Christ in His precious restoring grace is given to him in the day of his failure. And these things are what we want — to have both grace and glory realized to our souls — to walk along by Bethel and by Peniel. They sweetly vary the journey, but it is the one unchanging God that opens His house to us, and sheds the light of His face upon us.

"Then gladly sing, and sound abroad

The great Redeemer's praise,

The glories of the living God,

The riches of His grace."

Notices of Coming Glories.

Were we, if I may so speak, to go in upon the fields of the New Testament scriptures, and gather up fragments of the glories of coming days, we should find them, I do not say, lying there profusely, but still we should find them there, and we should at least have a handful to feed upon.

There is no one writing that digests this subject but coming glories shine out here and there in the midst of other thoughts, when different subjects of present interest to the saints are under consideration.

We know that in the coming days of the Kingdom, there will be both the earthly and the heavenly departments, and also connection and intercourse between them. We see notices of each of these in different parts of the four Gospels. Thus the Lord entered the city of the daughter of Zion, as her King. All that was needed to set Him forth in that glory, for a moment waited on Him. The ass and its owner, the whole material and mind of the scene, aided in giving us a sample of the days of the King of Israel.

The Greeks are presented as coming up to this King of Israel then in His beauty. And in this we get another sight of His further glories.

All this, however, was simply and entirely earthly. No glimpse of heaven appears. It is Messiah in His place on earth, King of Zion accepting the homage of the nations.

On the holy mount glories shine again. But it is another glory — not earthly, but heavenly. It is the light of bodies of glory that shines there, samples of the transfigured, translated, saints of God, in company with their Lord in heavenly places.

But, as I may say, on either side of them another place is seen; the earth In the persons of Peter, James and John, the higher heavens or, as it is called, "the exalted glory," in the voice that breaks forth upon the scene.

This is something very fine and very comprehensive. We have coming Millennial days finely and largely anticipated here. We have notices of the heavens and of the earth in their separate places; and their connections and mediums and intercourse which is to be established between them; that, while there will be a higher heaven, an excellent glory, a Father's house, unrevealed to sight there will be also a people in flesh and blood on the earth. A display of heavenly glory in the sight of the earthly people and intercourse maintained between the translated saints and them. The throne and the footstool shall be but different parts of one great system. This is a fine anticipation of coming days. The Lord again intimates "the excellent glory" under the title of "the Father's house," in John 14, letting us know that it is a wealthy place, a many-mansioned house, the dwelling of the family, the homestead in the realms of highest glory.

Thus we are gathering fragments. But further. There are distant scenes. There are nearer scenes also thrown open to our sight in these same scriptures of the New Testament.

We have the spirit of the Lord Himself before resurrection taken to and by the Father in Luke 23 — and then we have the glorified body of the Lord, after resurrection, translated to heaven, in Luke 24.

We have instruction as to ourselves in each of these things. We are taught to know, that should we die, as Jesus did, before the day of resurrection, our spirits will be received of Him in paradise or heaven. Luke 23, Acts 7; 2 Cor. 5, Philippians 1, teach us this. And should we live till the day of resurrection, we. are taught to know that we shall then be glorified and translated in company with those saints who have already died and gone, in spirit, to Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15, witnesses this, as also 1 Thessalonians 4.

But further still. After this translation, certain and divers scenes are disclosed to us. The heaven that is set for the execution of judgment in this present evil, revolted world is opened to our sight in Revelation 4. And actions which take their course, while the heavens continue, are presented to us in the progress of the same book. But in time, judgment is all executed, and there succeeds the heavens set for the ministration of government of the world to come, or the millennial earth. This is opened to our sight in Revelation 20, 21, 22.

But even further still. The world that is to be the scene of righteousness under the heavenly sceptre of the glorified Lord and His saints, will have its end. The heaven set for the ministration of government will have fulfilled its course, as well as the heaven set for the execution of judgment. And then we get another scene of glory opened to our view. There is the Great White Throne trying everything. And then the new heavens and the new earth introduced by the judgment of this Great White Throne — as the Millennial heavens and earth have been introduced by the judgment executed under the heavens, of Revelation 4.

Here the series of glories end. Various scenes and regions have thus unfolded themselves to us in their different characters. But we are to see them, and learn what they severally are by taking up notices of them here and there throughout the New Testament scriptures, from beginning to end — to glean in that fruitful field to gather up fragments which lie there — left by the hand of Him who is preparing for the feast days of eternity.

And had we but a heart for the feast itself, we should occupy ourselves more diligently and joyfully, in this gathering up, a kind of gleaning that goes before the harvest. But we fail in affection. We are wanting in desire. Present pleasures and interests divert the heart — and do not allow the eye and the thought and the hope to tarry where notices of coming glories shine.

Jeremiah and the Times.

Feel very much the character of this present time through which we are passing. The great powers that are destined to fill out the actions of Christendom's closing day are practising themselves, each in its several sphere, with great earnestness and skill. These powers are the civil and ecclesiastical.

I do not doubt but that, for a season, the ecclesiastical will prevail. The woman is to ride for awhile — and that is the symbol, as I surely judge, which signifies the supremacy of that which takes the place of the Church. And this present moment is marked by her efforts to mount the saddle.. And she is so adroitly directing these efforts that I doubt not success will soon attend them: and then the blood of the saints may flow afresh.

The civil power, however, is not idle. The wondrous advance that is making every day in the cultivation of the world is the proof of great skill and activity on its part. It is largely boasting and showing what it can do, and pledging what further it means to do.

At this moment each of these powers is abroad in the scene of action, and men's minds are divided between them. They are in some sense, rivals and opposed. There is the commercial energy, and there is the religious energy — the one erecting its railroads and exhibitions and such like, the other its bishoprics, churches, ordinances, etc. The attention of the children of man is divided between them — but the saints, who know the Cross of Christ as the relief of their conscience and the ground of their separation from the world are apart from both equally.

I doubt not but the civil power will have to yield the supremacy for a time; and the woman will ride again; though her state and greatness will be but short for the civil power will take offence and remove her.

For between these powers there is at times confederacy, and then at times there is enmity.

If we, in God's grace, keep a good conscience toward Christ and the truth, we may count upon it that no inheritance or portion on the earth is worth us, as men speak, many years purchase. If we will consent to become whatever the times would make us, of course we shall go on. But I speak this in the recollection that at any moment we maybe carried up to meet the Lord. I follow simply what I judge the progress of things on the earth is to be.

I have been sensible lately how much the language and spirit of Jeremiah suit these times. He lived in the daily observation of evil and iniquity abounding and advancing in the scene around him, though it was called by God's name and was indeed His place on the earth. The house of prayer had become a den of thieves. He knew likewise that the judgment of God was awaiting it all; but withal, he looked for sure and happy days in the distance which lay beyond the present corruption and the coming judgment.

He mourned about it, but he also testified against it. And like his Master, he was hated for his testimony (John 7: 7).

He was, however, full of faith and hope touching the future; and therefore he laid out his money in the purchase of Hanameel's field (Jer. 32). All this was beautiful — the present sorrow, the certainty of approaching judgment, and the hope of closing, crowning glory. This is a pattern for our spirit.

And I observe another feature of character or of power in the prophet. He was not to be seduced from the conclusions of faith by occasional circumstances, or fair promising appearances. This is seen in chapter 32. The Chaldean army had broken up their camp at the walls of Jerusalem, because of the arrival of the Egyptian allies. But Jeremiah left the city, for he could not but hold the conclusions of faith, that Jerusalem was doomed of God by the flattering appearances of a moment like that.

This is a fine exhibition of a soul walking by the light of God not only through darkness, but through darkness that seemed to be light. And with all this he was a suffering witness.

All seems quiet around us at present, and even more than that, things are advancing and progressing as far as the accommodations of social life go. But the moral of the scene in the eye of faith is more serious than ever. The apostate powers of man are ripening themselves into their most abundant exhibition. There is somewhat of rivalry between them just for the present. The secular and the religious are apart as yet. Each has its respective votaries and worshippers. But confederacy is to succeed to rivalry ere long I believe. The world must, even for its own ends, for a season adopt religion, and then for that season the woman will ride the beast again, that man's system may grow solid as well as extended, and propose itself as the thing that has earned for itself a title to conform all and everything to itself.

Separation is the Christian's place and calling, church separation, separation because of heavenly citizenship and oneness with an already risen Christ. Abraham's was a very complete separation. It was twofold: he was separated from the natural associations of Mesopotamia, "country, kindred, and father's house," and from the moral associations of Canaan, or its iniquities and idols.

May the Lord in the thought of these solemn truths, be more real and near to us! May the prospect of His presence be more familiarly before us, and the hope of His glory be found lying more surely and certainly in the very midst of the affections and stirrings of our hearts!

The Confederacies of Men and the Judgments of God

The Confederacies of Men and the Judgments of God.

J. G. Bellett.

Scripture contemplates hostile associations of men and of nations. Isaiah 7, 8, was the era of one, and the prophecy of another. Joel 3 tells of "multitudes, multitudes," gathered together in the day of Jerusalem's final sorrow. Psalm 83 anticipates a confederacy against the Israel of God; and "Gog" is the witness of a host of nations leagued in infidel defiance of the Lord.

But Scripture also contemplates civil or worldly associations — and it is our business to watch their spirit, their purpose, and their working, awful indeed as they are in forming the character and history of the world, and in urging it on its way to meet the judgment of God.

It was confederacy of this sort which was among the descendants of Noah. The one speech and the one language of the children of men in that day led them to judge that they were strong, and that by a little skill and effort they might wax still stronger, even to independency of God. The material under their hand in the plain of Shinar, promised very fair. They were all of one language, and were journeying in one direction. They were invited by favourable circumstances (providences, as they might say), and they would make a common effort, and try the industrial resources of nature. Things looked well for progress. With a little skill and diligence of their own, the fruitful plain would yield them brick and mortar, and they might accomplish much. And why should they not use the resources of nature, and exercise their own capabilities? Why should they not try what "the raw material," by man's "art and manufacture," would lead to, and do for them?

This was the language of the children of men in Genesis 11. Whether God would have it thus or not, they never thought of waiting to consider. He was not before them. They did their own pleasure. They built a city and a tower, that both name and security, glory and strength might be theirs.

Thus was it in these early days. in other and very distant days, in the days of the Saviour, it was the same — with this aggravating circumstance — that confederacies then formed themselves of strange, discordant elements, because of the working of the natural enmity of the heart to God — let that heart be disciplined or trained as it may be, whether in a Jewish or Gentile school. In that enmity, the Jew and the Gentile are found together; and so are the Pharisee and the Sadducee — the men of different politics and of different sects. The world combined these diverse materials against an unworldly Jesus. This was the secret of their confederacy. The Pharisee and the Sadducee were men of different thoughts altogether, considered simply in themselves; but the world can be their common object in resistance of Christ. This is seen in Matthew 16:1-5: "Show us a sign from heaven," they come together and say to Him. That is, they challenge the Lord to accredit Himself in some way that. the world could appreciate, or that, otherwise, they would reject Him by common consent.

This is to be laid to heart. The world has power to combine very different elements when an unworldly Christ stands out as a common enemy. Herod and Pilate were made friends together. There may be the secular and the ecclesiastical, even the infidel and the superstitious; but let an unworldly Christ appear, and He will be challenged as the object of common enmity. A heavenly stranger sojourning on earth for a time, is resented as a trespasser by both; and however else they may differ, they can confederate and act together against Him. God, such as man's heart or man's religion gives him, man will accept; but the true God, whose image Jesus is, will never do for him.

All this is for the present consideration of our souls. For the world is becoming a common object in these days of ours. All are aiding its advancement, and the development of its capabilities, and the multiplying of its desirable and delectable things — and such a generation as this may easily become the material of a confederacy, or common association against the unworldly Jesus and the church of God.

Strange coalition of this kind is presented to us by the Lord Himself in Luke 11. It is a solemn word of warning; and I may add, a seasonable word, just in this present day.

The unclean spirit had been the original tenant of this leprous house. In due time he left it, seeking other scenes of action. But after a while he returns, and finds his old house in a new condition. His absence, the absence of an unclean spirit, his left it open to other influences; and, accordingly, on his return he finds it "swept and garnished." This, however, does not disappoint him. He rather deems it to be more suited to his purpose than ever. And it is in this fact — this solemn, awful fact — that I judge there is something for our careful and special observation at this time, and for this generation.

This leprous house changed its style or condition, but not its owner, nor its fitness to answer the purposes of its owner. If the unclean spirit had been disappointed in his wanderings, he is not so on his return to his old dwelling. So far otherwise is it, that he goes to gather seven other spirits, more wicked than himself, and they all make entrance into the house, more thoroughly than ever to accomplish its ruin. And they succeed. The last state of it is worse than the first.

This is a picture, indeed, of strange, unexpected confederacies. An unclean spirit enters a swept house, associating with himself seven other spirits. This is a strange coalition. Things are found together in this house which naturally suited neither the house itself, nor each other. But still, there they are in company, and dwell and work together. An unclean spirit, with seven other spirits, in a swept and garnished house!

Is this Christendom in her last state? Is it to come to this? Is it not, I rather ask, on its way to this already? Are there not symptoms, somewhat too plain to be mistaken, of such strange, unnatural alliances, all around us? Are not elements in themselves repulsive, beginning to try their capability of combining? Is not "alliance" the favourite watchword of the day? Is not the unclean spirit of darker, earlier days making fresh entrance into a reformed, and swept, and ornamented house? Is not, this the Christendom of the present hour? Are not the premonitions of the Divine Prophet realizing before us and around us at this moment?

There are many spirits abroad at present, "gone out into the world." The old "unclean spirit" is abroad in growing vigour, the spirit of idolatry or superstition. The infidel spirit is abroad. The worldly spirit is abroad — that energy which, with its ten thousand arts, is embellishing and furnishing its native place, using refinement of all sorts, morals, religion, intellectual culture and intellectual delights, science and music, books and pictures, everything that can set off and recommend the world, and linking "the million" with nobles in the enjoyment of it.

Thus is it in the history of this present hour. The affecting truth that Jesus is the rejected Jesus in this world, is practically forgotten in all this. That mystery is scorned by some, denied by others, slighted by others, and but coldly, carelessly, and feebly acted on by us who thoroughly and entirely own it among the deep and precious things of God. For we say, How could God meet anything in this world but rejection? The world had already departed from Him, ere He came into it. It had set up for itself long before, even from the days of Cain and the city of Enoch. But how deep-seated its enmity must be, when it refused to know such an one as Jesus! This enmity of the world was as the enmity of the Jews, who could forget all their hatred of the Gentile, settled and rooted as that hatred was in the very heart of the nation, and say, in the desire to rid themselves of Him, "We have no king but Caesar" They refused the waters of Shiloh that flowed softly, and rejoiced in Rezin and Remaliah's son.

But confederacy has not closed its history, or spent all its energy yet. Far otherwise. It must be witnessed in full action at the end, as it was at the beginning. We have seen it in the early days of Babel, and in the matured meridian days of the Lord Jesus, and are still to see it in the declining days of the Apocalypse. And the "old Serpent" will be the life and instigator of confederacies at the end, as he was at the beginning, and hitherto. The book of the Apocalypse witnesses this, specially in the mysteries or symbols of the "Woman" and the "Beast."

The Woman sits on many waters. Multitudes, tongues, nations, and peoples, all receive the cup of fornication at her hand. Kings of the earth, merchants of the earth, every shipmaster and sailor, and such as trade in the sea, are subject to her. The Beast has the whole world wondering after him. In himself he combines the lion and the bear and the leopard, and he has ten horns and seven heads. The False Prophet ministers to him, and the kings, by one consent, give their power to him. All that dwell on the earth worship him. Small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, receive his mark In their forehead.

These are awful tokens of confederated energies of evil. And in them we see the beginning reproduced at the end. For confederacy is the mode or form in which man makes display of his natural pride and apostacy.

And in that form of confederation God will judge the revolted children of men speedily, as He has already done In early days. At the beginning, it was the alliance between the Woman and the Serpent that He broke, saying to the Serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman." It was those who were gathered in the rebel plain of Shinar that He scattered over the face of the whole earth. And so it is the body of the Apocalyptic Woman in her pride, He will give to the burning flame; and His supper, "the supper of the Great God," shall celebrate the doom and ruin of the Beast and his associates.

Our present victory, beloved, is by separation. Separation is holiness — if it be separation to the place and character which the calling of God suggests.

The purpose of the serpent in the garden was to withdraw Eve from the condition in which the Lord God had put her. She was to sacrifice that, and get advancement from him. She consented; and at once as a "chaste virgin" she was ruined. Her purity was lost. Whatever she gained, she lost that. She lost what God had made her.

The church, like the Eve of Genesis 2, should be what the hand of God has made her, taking, as it has done in this age, the cross of Christ as its instrument or material. And that cross has brought her nigh to God, but estranged her from the world, and when the principles of the world propose to cultivate and advance the church, and such proposal is listened to, we see again, what, of old we saw in Genesis 3, the mystic Eve has lost her virgin purity.

The proposal to advance the church by such means is attractive. But so was the proposal of the Serpent at the beginning, "Ye shall be as gods." This was an angel of light, a minister of righteousness, in the judgment of flesh and blood. But It worked corruption and utter moral ruin, for it beguiled her from the state in which God had left her.

And this generation is doing its best to commend the world to the church, the tree to the woman again. it speaks as though the world were now a very different thing from what the cross of Christ has declared it and proved it to be. It speaks as if Christ were no longer a rejected Christ. But if the saint listen, as of old Eve did, he is so far corrupted — for he is surrendering the place, the condition, and the character, which the cross of Christ has given him and made him.

The serpent would fain give man a garden again. And a happier garden it shall be than God once gave them. He shall have every tree in it. The world shall be a wise world, a religious world, a cultivated world, a delightful place, and still advancing. The man of benevolence, the man of morals, the religious and the intellectual man, the man of refined pleasures, all will find their home in it. And this shall be the world's oneness. And all who desire their fellow-creatures' happiness, and the common rest after so many centuries of confusion and trouble, will surely not refuse to join this honourable and happy confederacy.

Nothing will withstand all this but "the love of the truth"  - nothing but faith in that word which gathers a sinner to Jesus and His blood, and the hopes of a poor world-wearied believer to Jesus and His kingdom. Come what may to you, beloved, though it be moral and refined, or religious in its bearing, it is unrighteousness, if it be not of "the truth." (2 Thess. 2).

The world is "to wonder after the beast" before "every tongue confesses Jesus to be Lord." Each will be in its day  - but the Beast will have his day, his day of the rule of evil, ere Jesus has His day of the dominion of light and righteousness. The saint has to walk apart from those schemes or confederations which are undertaking to make the world what God can accept, till the rejection of Christ be answered from heaven. Little do many who favour the system of religious ordinances, and assert the rights and dignities of office, think that they are combining with those who are cultivating the masses and the people by liberal institutions. But it is so — for all are cultivating man instead of renewing him. All are doing something against the truth, and not for the truth. (See 2 Cor. 13:8.) The attempt is very specious. The system of the Beast and his kings will, in its day, be very fair. They have all "one mind" — and from the attractiveness of such unity nothing will preserve the soul but the faith that knows the principles of God, and that anything or everything that proposes to set the world in order till judgments have cleared it, is of the god of this world and not of heaven. The thing that is to have this "one mind," is the very thing that withstands the Lamb, and is judged of God In the day of the Lord. (Rev. 17: 14; Rev. 19: 19, 20.)

Easy to write this, beloved — but I know that it is the power of separation that is to be cherished by us. It was so In the soul of the dear apostle, as we have seen him in 2 Timothy. In that affecting epistle, he breathes a spirit. which was strong in the grace that is in Jesus Christ, and consciously treading the borders of the glory. And with this he had ardent love for the prosperity of the church, and of his beloved Timothy. Here was the hidden virtue of his beautiful and distinct separation from the world, or the corrupted "great house," which was then rising up before him and around him. His separation was in the power of this faith and hope and charity. And to like grace the Spirit calls us in this day, when the "great house" of that epistle has become the Christendom of this day.

The scenery of the prophets (and that scenery is as real as what at this moment is under our eyes), and I may say, very specially that of the Apocalypse, is acquiring increased distinctness in the thoughts of many of the saints of God in these days. In other days it was looked on as dim and clouded. And is not this, I ask, some symptom that we are approaching those regions — that we are conscious of increasing distinctness because of nearness?

And besides: there is something of an instinctive turning to thoughts of judgment and of glory among us. There is something of a sense of this solemn fact, that God is about to interfere in some way or another with the course of things around us. The energies of evil are seen to be very active, and the world to be very haughty and self-sufficient. The present day is the manhood of the world. The world is playing the man now. It speaks of other days as one would remember his childhood. It is boasting itself beyond all former pretensions, and promising to do greater things still. And so will it proceed, till in the moment of its loftiest pride the judgment of God overtakes it.

The people of God should wait with the girdle and the lamp, which are the beautiful standing symbols of their calling till the Lord appears — that is, with minds girt up unto holy separation from present things, and with hearts brightened up with the desire and expectation of coming things.

These thoughts of judgments may profitably move our hearts at this hour. But let me add, for it is a comfort to remember it, that the judgments of God are always only by the way, and never close the scene, or terminate His action and purpose. He does indeed pass through them, but He only passes through them, or rather with them, onward to glory and the kingdom, which is His calling. The Deluge, one of His judgments, led to the new world under the government of Noah. The judgment of the cities of the plain was survived, and Abraham is seen on high, the next morning, above it all, and Lot is delivered. The judgment of Egypt was the redemption of Israel destined for the inheritance.

And for still further strength and comfort I may add, that if the mind could be delivered from the blinding and prejudicing power of self-love, it would speak the judgment of righteousness, and justify God in His judgments. Look at Adam. His hiding behind the trees of the garden gave judgment against himself with God. Look at the camp in Numbers 14. Their utter silence the moment the Glory appeared did the same. It was like Adam's hiding of himself. Look at David. Nathan catches his conscience when he appealed simply to his moral sense, his estimate of right and wrong, his measure of iniquity and its retribution. He got from David such a sentence as justified the judgment of God against himself. He little suspected that he was pronouncing sentence in his own cause. But it was so — and self-love being dismissed or set aside for a moment, and the moral sense being left alone in company with the offence, David out of his own mouth is judged, and God's judgment is justified.

So the husbandmen of Matthew 21. Like Nathan with David, the Lord catches the conscience of the Jews. and makes them pronounce their own condemnation. And all this, because self-love was again, as it were, sent out of court, and the mere moral sense, the sense of good and evil, right and wrong, is alone on the judgment-seat. The decree of God against them is there anticipated by themselves.

And so with the man without the wedding-garment In Matthew 22. He got into the marriage-feast with a careless heart, just thinking of himself in the power of some form or other of mere nature. But again, in his case, when the sense that judged what was fitting and necessary was called into exercise, and there was nothing to interfere with its action in the conscience — when the simple, unmixed thought is presented to him, whether any person in such a dress should be in such a place, he is "speechless," he is convicted, he has nothing to say, and his own judgment tells him that such an one as he has no business In such a place as that.

These may be used by the soul as illustrations of the great truth, that the Judge of all the earth will do right, that He will be justified when He speaks and clear when He judges. Out of our own mouth will He condemn. When Eve pleaded the serpent's guile, and Adam pleaded Eve's gift to him, the Lord God did not condescend to answer the pleas. And who of us at this hour does not justify Him in pronouncing that sentence without replying to those excuses?

All this is for us and our comfort, when we think of Him with whom we have to do; and we may sing of Him and of His praise when the subject is either "mercy" or "judgment." (Ps. 101) But judgment, again I say, never closes the scene. It is never "the end of the Lord." The things of Job were all set right, and much more than that, ere "the end of the Lord" in his history was reached. His things in the world, in his own person, both mind and body, in the family, and in the church, were all in confusion. His cattle were stolen, his houses were in ruins, his children were dead, and his brethren were set against him, he misunderstanding and reviling them, and they injuriously reproaching and condemning him. All was thus out of order; within and around him, as to the world, the family and the church.

How could there be more confusion! But God's "end" lay beyond all this — for we never reach God's end in either discipline or judgment, the discipline of an individual saint,, or the judgment of a people or a world.

So does the Holy Jesus alone close and crown the book which details the coming judgments of God. (Rev. 22.)

How little does the soul rise up in the power of these things, which are so easily discerned, and so freely spoken of and written about.

Confusion and Order

Confusion and Order.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

The Lord found a state of sad and humbling and various confusion in the land that He walked through day by day. But it only gave occasion to His path to shine the brighter — for it was light and only light undimmed by the darkness, and unbroken by the confusion, that was all around.

The state of politics and of religion in that day exhibited this confusion. The authority of the Roman was there where Jehovah should have been supreme; Caesar's image was circulating in Immanuel's land. And he had to do with Herodians, Sadducees, and Pharisees, with His own kinsfolk according to the flesh in their ignorance, with doctors and scribes in their pride and pretensions, with the multitudes in their self-seeking and fickleness, and with the low condition of His own disciples.

He had to walk through such regions as Galilee, Judea, and Samaria — diverse, I mean, not in place or situation, but in character. For Samaria was the defiled, Galilee the rational, Judea the religious. This we see in John 4, 5.

Galilee would receive Him, because they had seen the miracles which He had wrought; but without signs and wonders they would not believe. Like Christendom, and her walk every day, Galilee gave Him historical faith and acceptance. They believed on competent testimony; but there was no exercise of soul, nor awakening of conscience.

Judea or Jerusalem was occupied with its temple and its sabbath. Religion, or the observance of ordinances, the maintenance of what honoured themselves in their own place as the house or centre of the nation's worship, was chief with them, and prevailed to blind them to the doings of the Son of God.*

*A great multitude of impotent folk were lingering over Bethesda, though the Son of God was going about healing all manner of diseases, doing the work of Bethesda in a far better way than Bethesda.

Samaria was unclean. It had no character to maintain, no religious honour to vindicate and uphold. But there, the conscience was stirred. No miracle had been witnessed there, but no miracle was sought for. Jesus was received there, because his words had reached their souls.

This was Galilee, and this was Judea, and this Samaria; Galilee the rational, Judea the religious, and Samaria the defiled. But all such various confusion only glorified the path of Him who knew how to answer every man. Herodians and Sadducees and Pharisees, His kinsfolk and His disciples, the doctors, the scribes, and the multitudes, Galilee, Judea, and Samaria, all in their way and season got their answer from Him. He would not resist, but yet He would escape the snare. His voice should not be heard in the streets, and yet He would leave them unable to answer Him a word. He did not cure the confusion, but He passed through it, only glorifying God the more by reason of it.

And it is our comfort to see this. It tells us that the scenes in which we find ourselves involved day by day are nothing new, and need not be a surprise to us. They may exercise us, and we may fail under them, and to our humbling, but they need neither amaze nor dishearten us. We need not hope to cure it; but, like the Master, we have to pass through it. Judgment will do its work in its season, and confusion shall cease. But the time of judgment is not yet fully come. Jesus was ever judging the sinner's enemy, but never His own. He contended for us against Satan, but never for His own rights against either the Roman or the Jew. Such was the combination of weakness and strength in Him; ever passing by His own wrongs, but judging all the power of the sinner's enemy, destroying the works of the devil.

And order shall succeed judgment, as judgment succeeds long-suffering. In its time, this shall surely be, as now confusion surely is. His hand will form and mould a scene of order in the days of the coming kingdom. And of this order He has already, by His Spirit, again and again, in the progress of His grace and wisdom, given pledges and samples. And as we look at this for a little, we shall have to say, How beautifully things take their, proper place, when the Spirit of God comes to regulate them! And this is done, as I may say, noiselessly - as creation of old assumed all its order under the same Spirit.

We see a sample of this in Gen. 18. The Lord had taken counsel with Himself, that He would reveal a matter to Abraham. Upon that, the two angels who had attended Him to Mamre, pass on, while Abraham, on the other hand, draws near. How simple, and yet how beautiful that was! The scene, as without noise or effort, takes its due form. The objects which fill it fall into their right places — the angels leaving the place in the possession of those who had a secret between them, while they themselves, left alone, draw nearer to each other.

So Abraham again in Gen. 21. He had just been distinguished by divine favour. He had got Isaac, and his house was established by the Lord. The Gentile comes to seek his friendship. Abraham accords it to him heartily — but on the occasion he assumes the place of the better, while Abimelech, though a king, and Phichol his chief captain, who accompanied his master, without grudging, took the place of the less.

This was another witness of souls finding their right relationship to each other under the hand or Spirit of God, all between them being in the order and harmony of "a noiseless sphere."

The same is seen, and that, too, in a larger field of vision, in Ex. 18. The ransomed tribes of Israel meet Jethro at the mount of God. Aaron is there, and Moses is there, heads of Israel, priestly and royal heads. But Jethro, nevertheless, takes the place of the better. He was but a stranger, visiting, in company with Moses' Gentile bride, the Israel of God. But he was heavenly — his person and his place tell us that — and he assumes at once, without asking leave and yet without wrong, the rights of the heavenly; and Moses and Aaron as instinctively and at once yield the place of the better to him, both in the sanctuary and on the throne.

O, when the Spirit works, what an end of strife, and emulation, and self-seeking there is! and what relief to the heart such an anticipation brings with it!

The interview of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba shows the same. John and Peter, in the presence of the Lord, take their relations to each other in the same spirit in John 13.

Peter in the distance beckons to John, and John at that beckoning, being near, presses the bosom of his Lord afresh; and thus together they get out the secret of that bosom. There is no jealousy, no provoking here. One scarcely knows in which to delight the more, the beckoning of Peter to John, or the pressure of John upon the bosom of Jesus, Peter using his brother, or John using his Lord. It is an exquisite sight — lovely to behold, happy to anticipate — to think of communion after such a pattern, when no envyings or provokings will soil the interchanges of heart with heart when "which of them shall be the greatest" will be heard no more, the confusion which passions and tempers bring forth gone for ever.

And to these few instances of the beautiful, regulating power of the Spirit I must add that of our Lord and the two disciples going to Emmaus, in Luke 24.

Jesus, a stranger, had joined Himself to them on the road, and helped their thoughts, and in that way relieved their hearts. The road was common property. But when they reach their home, the stranger will not intrude. He may join them on the King's highway, but their house is their castle. They, however, cannot allow this. They are too much His debtors to let Him pass on so soon, and they constrain Him to enter. But upon this, when faith has its desires towards Him, if not as yet its knowledge of Him, He at once takes His proper place. He becomes the host rather than the guest, the Lord of the feast dispensing its best provisions, while they, in the fulness of their hearts, awakened to know Him, thankful and happy, own His title.

All is in its due order. From the beginning to the end this was so. The scene on the common highway, the scene at the gate of the dwelling, and then the scene inside the house — all is order.

And surely I may say all these are passing shadows, whether in patriarchal or evangelical days, of happy days to come. when, again, in "a noiseless sphere," harmonies, not unisons, shall strike, and move the joys of thousands of hearts together. For at the end. as at the beginning, in the scene of redemption at last, as in that of creation at first, all shall be in order both in heaven and on. earth, under the power of the Word and Spirit of God. On earth Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the ass and the ox shall plough together. The nations shall delight to own the glories of Zion and minister to her, as best they may, Geba and Sheba, Nebaioth and Kedar. And in the heavens all shall be compacted and joined together, as in the mystery of one body; principalities and powers, and dominions and thrones may be diverse, but still consistent and harmonious, dignities.

Thus, in the places of the coming kingdom, whether earthly or heavenly, things will be in beauty and order — moral as well as natural order. The two sticks shall be one. Judah and Israel shall dwell together under the same vine and the same fig-tree, and the nations will take the second place, the place of "the less," and take it joyfully.

"There all the millions of His saints

Shall in one song unite,

And each the bliss of all shall view

With infinite delight."

The Queen of Sheba was too happy at the sight of Solomon's glory to envy him the possession of it. And Peter, on the holy mount, was so satisfied in the power of that place, that he would count it his happy business to serve those who were above him.

What a relief such a prospect gives! It is high time to be wearied and ashamed of all the vanity, the envying, and the strife, which we are sensible of within and around. The Syrophenician breathed the happier spirit of the coming kingdom, when she was so heartily willing to be second to Israel, thankful to receive the portion of dogs under the table where the children were feasted.

"Blessed are the people that are in such a case!" Blessed to anticipate a state of order, moral, holy, gracious order, kept in the power of the presence of God, such order as these Scriptures both pledge and foreshadow. And well it is for us, beloved, if we can, until this age of order come, pass on through the confusion which is now around us, in something of the light and purity of the mind of Christ.

Different Conversions

Different Conversions.

J. G. Bellett.

It is sweet to inspect the way in which the light of God approaches and enters the soul. Sometimes it is gentle, sometimes it is full of force and rapidity; sometimes it intimates a work more fully on the heart; and sometimes a work more on the conscience or understanding. But it is always God's work, that we know, though the material operated upon may be various, and the mode of operation various.

Look at Acts 8: 9, 10. The Eunuch was evidently in the hand of God ere Philip met him-he was under the drawings of the Father (John 6: 44). And that his heart was deeply engaged is evident, because he forgot the common order, as I may say, of the world, when he bid Philip come up to him in his chariot. He waited for no introduction. The stranger was no stranger, since he referred to that subject which at that moment was everything to his heart. He was another Zaccheus, who forgot his place in society, and pressed through the crowd after Jesus.

Look at Saul. He was full of religious zeal-the zeal of an inquisitor. Look at Cornelius. He was full of religious devotion-gentle, benevolent, disposed (instead of persecuting others) to judge that all others were better than himself.

Here were different materials, and the mode of operation on them was different. The work was carried on in Saul's soul with characteristic force-that in Cornelius's with like gentleness and grace. But both of them equally needed Jesus. There was no life in either or for either, but through Jesus.

So the jailer and Lydia in Acts 16, Lydia was something of a female Cornelius. She was devout, and gentle, and gracious, and the Lord, by a very gentle operation, opened her heart. The jailer was a kind of Saul, at least in his apprenticeship; he was beginning to practise his hand in that work of persecution with which Saul had been long familiar. But as far as he had gone, he had learnt his art well, and the operation on him, like that on Saul of Tarsus, was in characteristic force. An earthquake accompanied the unlocking of the bars of his strong and iron heart, as "the still small voice" had done the business with Lydia's.

But again; neither the gentle Lydia nor the fiery jailer could do without Jesus. Till Lydia knew Jesus, Paul could teach her; but he did not worship with her, though she was a devout woman. (See vv. 13, 16).

May the souls of sinners be precious in our sight! and these witnesses of the grace of God, and of the power of the Spirit, be acceptable to our hearts.

Extracts from Correspondence

Extracts from Correspondence.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

1.

The moral activities that are abroad are surely immense, and the pressure upon the social system of influences full of deceivableness, I suppose, is beyond all precedent. It is desirable to keep the soul increasingly alive to the fact that the path of the Church is a narrow and peculiar one. Even her virtues must have a peculiar material in them. Her common honesty, her good deeds, too, her secular labours, her fruitfulness, purity, and the like, are to be peculiar in their functions and their springs. Her discipline does not act after the pattern of the mere moral sense of man. Society, as another has observed, would disclaim the offence contemplated in 1 Cor. 5; but society would never deal with it as the Church is there called to deal with it. Society, for instance, would never put covetousness or extortion in company with it, but the saint is instructed to do so. The moral sense of man would there make distinctions, when the pure element of the house of God resents all alike as unworthy of it.

This is "fine gold" dear brother — gold refined again and again. Even the morals of the Church are to be of another quality from those of men. What sanctions are brought in in 1 Cor. 5, 6 as to the common matters of life. If the saint be to abstain from fornication, it is because his body is a temple: if he be to refuse the judgment of others in the affairs of this life, in their most ordinary ways of right and wrong, of debit and credit, it is because he himself is destined to be a judge in the seat of the world to come, even from a throne of glory. Is not this "fine gold?" Does not such sanction make morals divine? What, in the world's morality, is like this? And I ask further, is not the need of this divine or peculiar agency to the effecting any moral results intimated in Luke 11: 21-27? If it be not the stronger man possessing himself of the house, is anything done for God? If it be merely the unclean spirit going out, the end of the history of the house is, that it becomes more fitted for deeper evil. The emptied state, even accompanied by sweeping and ornamenting, is only a preparation for a worse condition, and nothing is done for God but when the stronger enters the house. No instrument of garnishing according to God, but Christ. And in the remembrance of these verses, dear brother, ask yourself what is doing in and for the house of Christendom at this moment. Is not many a broom, many a brush sweeping it and painting it? Is this making it God's house, or getting it ready to be the house of the full energy — the sevenfold energy — of the enemy?

2

Plenty of error is abroad, I doubt not, and that of all sorts, doing all kinds of mischief. May our hearts be pained when we think of it. But it is not for all of us at least to meddle with it in the way of exposure. To separate "the good into vessels," the precious from the unclean mass, and nourish it with divine provisions may be a happier business.

I think we may learn that all forms of error will have something of full-grown representatives in these last days. The infidel leaven will (2 Peter 3: 3, &c.); the loose, the morally relaxed condition of evangelical profession will (2 Peter 2, and Jude); religiousness, which leaves the soul exposed to the "deceivableness of unrighteousness," will (2 Thess. 2). These, and others, will be in full strength, in the last days, that the judgment of God may meet them, as has been the way of divine judgments, in their day of full-blown fruits. In a general way I would put brethren in Christ in mind of all this, that they may keep themselves pure. But it is endless to follow the mind of man, as it is in this day of its peculiar activity, filling the scene with its fruit.

Ranke's history of the Popes of the 16th and 17th centuries is a remarkable witness (though perhaps not fully so intended to be by its author) of the present movement. We are witnessing a second regeneration of Catholicism, as Ranke says the close of the 16th century did. And this revival is destined, I judge, to set the woman on the beast, till the beast and his kings dethrone her to perfect their own form of apostacy, which the just Lord who judgeth righteously will visit in His day.

Great principles such as these are to be put before the saints, that their minds may be delivered from the perverted expectations of this generation. But this is to be done rather incidentally, more for the sake of the kingdom that lies beyond, all this, than with the intent of acquainting the mind with these evils and apostate reprobate things themselves. A rejected Jesus is to be presented to the affections of the saints, and the coming glory is to be shown as that which suits Him as such a rejected One.

No Fellowship with Dishonour to Christ

No Fellowship with Dishonour to Christ.

Section 5 of: Musings on Scripture Vol. 3

J. G. Bellett.

I refuse the language used by brethren from whom we have seceded, that we have "excommunicated them." This is not a just expression; and it produces indignation, and immediate determination in the mind to have nothing to do with people or with principles of such a bearing. It is not excommunication. It is standing at the door of the house of God, and, if certain persons come to the door seeking entrance, we act as the spirit of the apostle lets us know we ought to act, and we forbid them entrance.

We do not enquire if they are saints of God or not: this we may know elsewhere. The apostle does not tell us to make any such enquiry. But we refuse to receive them coming up to the door of the house of God from the temple of an idol (1 Cor. 10). They have declared or admitted the declaration, without judging it (and this makes them partakers with it), that they receive at their table one who comes from a place where Christ is dishonoured, if he himself is sound in faith and morals, and has not imbibed the heterodoxy. And I say no more but just ask, Is a place where Christ is dishonoured other in our eyes than an idol's temple, where the cups of demons are drunk? We have no such custom, neither the churches of God. But we say, Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons (or of those who dishonour the Lord Jesus). Judge in yourselves, judge the principle in the light of the word. To me it seems, self-evidencing light, and power, and virtue, and holiness are in it.

But now that I am on this subject with you, I will linger a little over it, though it be very painful, and has been so to me for many years; for I dearly loved those personally from whom I am separated congregationally.

There are three distinct elements — to use a phrase in much present use:- formalism, socialism, and divine holiness.

Formalism obtains in all the aged systems of Romanism and the parish church.

Socialism has made great inroads on it in this day of ours. To a great extent it is the favourite principle of the present generation; whether in or out of the church, we see it in activity. The men of the world are combining, and form their joint-stock companies, their confederacies, for the advance of present accommodation and international brotherhood. Such is the day. The saints are always tempted by the spirit of the age, and are now very much acting on this principle. They receive one another in an abstract way, not under the condition the word of God prescribes, as in 1 Cor. 10. And the social atmosphere is very grateful: they breathe it freely and encourage one another by no means to disturb it.

Divine holiness pauses in the light of everything, and challenges it, however precise, amiable, respectable, and widely accredited, by the light of the Lord, and forces it to give an account of itself to the word of God. It has its peculiarities, which it can never surrender either to socialism or to formalism. It is something more than the moral sense of man, or even than a "charity" that refuses to judge or distinguish things that differ. It is the mind of God dispensed in scripture in any given age, and walking in the light of His mind. This divine holiness is a separating principle, but not that of a Pharisee, all to the tradition of men, or assumed higher holiness in one's self, but that of obedience to God's peculiarities — the principles of His house revealed in His word.

It is easy nowadays to take the journey from formalism to socialism. There is much in the temper of the age to put a very large generation on that road, so that great countenance is given to those who are travelling there. But to travel from socialism to divine holiness is another thing altogether. I add, and this only, that to us it is plain, that among the peculiarities, or attributes, of divine holiness is found that principle which I have already noticed — that if one come from an idol's temple, where the cup of demons had been drunk (though he be a saint of God), he is not to be received in the house of God. He may say, It is my liberty, and I may go where I please. Divine holiness replies, I cannot combine with such liberty.

Yours affectionately in the Lord,

J G Bellett.

Nov. 18th, 1863.

P.S. — I should like with you to look at the Book of Nehemiah, as illustrating formalism, socialism, and divine holiness. We are now called "Exclusives." If this title belongs to us, it belongs to the apostle who tells us to act upon the principle which has given us the title.

Jehovah, Jesus,

Jehovah, Jesus, — Son of David and Son of God.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 17, p.57 etc.

In reading the Holy Scriptures we should remember that they do not simply contain a rule of life and conduct, but that they are a revelation of God, so as to lead us into the knowledge of Him in Jesus Christ, and thus into life eternal. He that was "in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. "I have manifested Thy name," says the Lord, "unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world." They do assuredly exhibit a rule of life; and as such not a jot or tittle of them is to be disregarded (Matt. 5: 18); but if they be received merely as such, our souls will not come into contact with the great purpose of God in giving them forth. We are renewed in knowledge — knowledge of God in Christ, through the Spirit; and therefore the effort of the god of this world is to hinder the light of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, from shining into us; and, on the other hand, the prayer of the apostle, for the church, is that they might receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, and that they might increase in the knowledge of God (Eph. 1: 17; Col. 1: 10). Oh! that all saints may find their happiest occupation in searching out the ways of their faithful God, redeeming their time from the vain pursuits of the world thus to converse with Him. Let us remember however, that it is the willing and obedient heart, and not the acute intellect, that makes safe and profitable progress in this knowledge. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him" (Ps. 25: 14). "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein" (Ps. 111: 2).

The sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow, form, as we are told, the great burthen of the scriptures. The Spirit in the prophets testified of these; and surely they do constitute the centre of the blessed, wondrous, and gracious purpose or plan of our God in His dealings with us.

Concerning this glory, which was thus to follow the sufferings of Christ, I desire to trace two portions or characters of it signified to us by two of His many titles —

Son of David; Son of God.

And oh, for more of the mind of Christ, — more too of the sweet power of friendship with Jesus, that we all may thus be more apt to learn from Him the things which He has heard from the Father (John 15: 15)!

The purpose of God, in His election of Israel as His nation, was the assertion of His own right to all power on earth; or, in other words, for the manifestation of Christ, as the heir and holder of all earthly glory and dominion.

His dispensation, by means of Israel no doubt, was made to answer other purposes; as for instance, it answered the purpose of drawing out, in still broader and brighter lines, the evidences of man's weakness and degradation through the fall; that though favoured, as man was among the Jews, in the most special ways of providence, yet was he found to be without strength, unable to stand unrebukeable before God; and thus it gave us further to know, that God Himself must sustain us, and work in and for us. And then it answered the other purpose of witnessing that God could, in grace, thus sustain us, and thus work in and for us Himself; for it presented shadows of good things to come: the law, as well as the prophets of Israel, prophesied of Jesus (Matt. 11: 13). But the characteristic purpose of God in the dispensation of Israel, appears to have been to vindicate His own name, — the name of Jehovah, as the only God of the whole earth, the only Lord of the lower parts of the earth. For in Israel, Christ or Jehovah was economically or virtually on the throne. A theocracy, as it is commonly admitted, was established among them; and the history of Israel was to have shown, and but for their unbelief and rebellion, would have shown, that "blessed were the people who had the Lord for their God." They were "set on high above all nations of the earth." "What nation is there," said Moses, "so great, that hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all that we call upon Him for" (Deut. 4: 7)? And so Joshua could afterwards stand before Israel, and witness, in like manner, the mercy of Jehovah to them as His nation: — "the Lord hath driven out from before yon great nations and strong; but as for you no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day" (Joshua 23: 9).

Thus was Israel established to be God's witness on earth; they were His people, politically united with Him as their King. And being thus the earthly people of God, their blessings were blessings of the earth, blessings of providence, as it is written, "all these blessings shall come upon them" (Deut. 28: 1-14).

And they should have continued thus to flourish as God's nation, "their time should have remained for ever" (Ps. 81: 15). But the children of Israel revolted from their King, they rejected Jehovah, as Christ, that He should not reign over them (1 Sam. 8: 7).

When Israel, thus with revolted heart, would have a king, after the Lord had made trial of the son of Kish (the mystical import of whose reign, though deeply interesting and instructive, I need not here consider), He gave them David to be their king, a man after His own heart. By the arms of David the enemies of God and of His Israel were all reduced; and then, full of honour and as established to the furthest limits of the promised land, the throne and kingdom of David are delivered over to his son Solomon, that he might hold them as glorious in the eyes of the nations; and thus was the throne of David constituted a second witness of God's authority and power on earth. But the house of David, like Israel before, speedily corrupted itself, and after long patience, God removed them from their place, taking power from them, and allowing it to pass over to the heathen who were not His people; and there it has been ever since, passing from one to another of the four Beasts of the prophets. And thus has the Lord been left without a due or appointed witness to His glory as Lord of the earth. But scripture very largely tells us that Israel is to revive as from their present state of death, and be established by Christ and under Christ (Who is the Faithful Witness to the glory of the Father) in the person, and with all the rights, of "Son of David:" and to His hand earthly power and glory shall be found to be securely committed, to the glory of God the Father.

I have thus anticipated what I understand from scripture to be the special characteristic glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, as "Son of David;" it presents Him to us as the restorer and holder of power on earth. This name or title appears to have its origin in the words of Nathan, the prophet of God, to David (see 2 Sam. 7: 8-16).

This word of Nathan distinctly appoints the son of David to be the head of that house and kingdom which the Lord would Himself establish in the earth for ever. Ps. 89 celebrates the same grace of God to David's seed. Now a comparative view of 2 Sam. 7: 14 with Heb. 1: 5, of Ps. 132: 11 with Acts 2: 30, and of Isa. 55: 3 with Acts 13: 34, will at once assure us that Christ, and not Solomon, is really and substantially the Son of David, both in the oracle of Nathan and in the Psalm I have referred to. And I would add just this — that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of David, not as Head of His mystical body the church, but as Head of the restored tribes of Israel; for the church never has been, and indeed never could be forsaken of her God as the prophet there threatens, and the psalmist there complains (Ps. 89); but Zion is now really the Forsaken, and her land the Desolate (Isa. 62: 4). Besides, the Lord Jesus often admitted His claim to this title, and, when He stood before the Roman governor, confessed Himself to be the King of the Jews. And the Angel, announcing His birth, spake of David as His Father, and David's throne as His. In this character of the Son of David the Lord offered Himself to Israel at His first coming; but Israel cast Him out then, as they had done before in the days of Samuel. We learn this from the parable of the wicked Husbandmen. For we learn there distinctly that the mission of the Son of God to earth was designed, among its many blessed purposes, to prove whether Israel could still be continued in possession of the vineyard under the care and government of Him Who was the heir of it, for the disallowing of Whose title to which was the vineyard taken from them.

So the Lord's last solemn entry into Jerusalem was in the character of the Son of David; and therefore was He accompanied on that occasion with the suitable acclamations — Hosanna to the Son of David, God save the king. But the rulers and representatives of the people, being then offended in Him, not discerning the glory of the kingdom in the person of the lowly Jesus of Nazareth, He left them as ripe for present judgment (and which judgment they have ever since been suffering), giving them to know that they should not see Him till in the spirit of repentance and faith they had learned to welcome Him, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," (see Matt. 21 - 23). These words of welcome the Lord advisedly takes from Psalm 118, this being the song of Israel in the joyous and triumphant day, when they shall bring in Jesus as the Head Stone with shoutings of "Grace, grace," to Him; and the shout of a king, according to the prophecy, shall be eminently among them (Numbers 23: 21).

So that beautiful prophecy contained in Isaiah 7 - 9 instructs us in the same truth. When the prophecy was delivered, Syria and Ephraim were confederated against Judah; and Isaiah was commissioned to sustain the courage of the house of David, by an assurance to it that the confederacy should not prevail; and by more than that. For the discomfiture of the then present confederacy was made a pledge of the discomfiture of all succeeding confederacies, at least so as to secure to the house of David in the end rest and glory, though for a season it might lie in ruins and dishonour; and that "a Child" in due time should be "born," and "a Son" be "given," Whose right it was, and Whose right should be asserted, on that throne of David to sit, and his kingdom and government to order and establish for ever. And how splendidly do the hopes of Israel sparkle on that page of scripture! "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace: of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end; upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment, and with justice from henceforth for ever and ever."

Psalm 72 is another beautiful exhibition of the doings and glories of Christ in the character of the Son of David: and Isaiah 25 presents us, as it were, with a sample of the peaceable fruit from the reign of His sceptre of righteousness.

This title of "Son of David" was indeed the highest in which Christ was made known to the faith of the Jews, merely as Jews (see Matt. 22: 42); and therefore as we have already seen, it was as the Son of David that the multitude congratulated Him on His royal visitation to Jerusalem (Matt. 21). So we may observe that Bartimaeus manifested his faith in contrast with the ignorance of the multitude; for while Jesus was known to them merely as "Jesus of Nazareth" (being thus distinguished, just as all men are by a specified place, parentage, or other circumstance), He was known to Bartimaeus as "Son of David," and appealed to as such for mercy. And justly so; for, according to the Jews themselves, the Son of David was to bring the mercy which Bartimaeus needed (Matt. 12: 23); and also according to the prophets. For as Son of David, the restorer of the human earthly system, He is to come with a recompence, He is to come and save the people; and the eyes of the blind are to be opened, and the ears of the deaf to be unstopped (Isaiah 35: 3, 4). In like manner the woman, who came to Jesus from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, appealed to Him for mercy, as the Son of David. Now she presents to us a sample of the faith in which the nations are to stand, in the day when the tabernacle of David, which is now in ruins, shall be set. up, and the residue of men shall seek after the Lord. For the Gentiles will then acknowledge Israel as the "children," the "natural branches," and will acquiesce in God's appointment of the "first dominion," to the daughter of Zion — in the Lord's settling of every thing in favour of the Jew first. So this woman commends her faith to the Son of David, in the same spirit, really taking a place under the children's table (Matt. 15: 28).

Now Peter's faith apprehended the person of the blessed Jesus in a character different from that of the Son of David; he was taught by the Spirit to discern in Him a glory beyond a mere Jewish or earthly glory. He made confession to Him as "the Son of the living God;" and therefore, and at once, the Lord committed to Him the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 16: 16). Because, as I believe, while Jesus as Son of David is the head of earthly power and glory, as Son of God He is head of all power in heaven, the Dispenser of those which are in the ἐπουρανίοις or heavenlies. And this leads me to consider, as I proposed to do, the second title of our blessed and adorable Saviour, "Son of God."

In a divine sense, I assuredly believe our Lord Jesus bears this title. He is called Son of God, when His full, unqualified, eternal Deity is expressed, when revealed as one with the Father and the Holy Ghost (three Persons in one God). For John says, "Therefore the Jews sought to kill Him, because He had not only broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father;" making Himself equal with God (John 5: 18). And again, after speaking largely of Himself as Son of God, He closes with assuming full divine glory, saying, "before Abraham was, I am" (John 8: 58). And the divine dignity of this title clearly appears from John 10: 30-39, and from 1 John 1, 2. Indeed on the truth, that there is Father and Son in the Godhead, the very life of the christian seems to depend; for this life is fellowship with God in love; which will be found to be fellowship with the Father and the Son. "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father" (1 John 2: 23). "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God; he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son" (2 John 9).

But still, in another sense, the holy scriptures speak of Him as Son of God; and this is in immediate connection in result with us as incarnate and risen, as the eldest of the family in heaven, the First-born among many brethren. Now let us look for the origin of this title, as we did before for that of "Son of David."

As our blessed Lord walked on earth, He was a circumcised man, debtor to do the whole law. He was made, as we read, "under the law," and to the utmost tittle of it was obedient to it, so that He presented a righteousness in flesh to God; as He died on the cross a Lamb without blemish. But by resurrection He entered into another condition, being then declared to be Son of God with power, having thereby proved that He, a Son of Man, had the life of God in Him, life superior to the power of death. And we must ever remember, for it is a doctrine insisted on most fully, I might say in all parts of the apostolic scriptures, that it is with the Lord in His resurrection that the saints have their union. It is as first-born from the dead, that He is the head of His body the church (Col. 1: 18), The life in His members is not, if I may call it, legal or Jewish life, life of circumcised flesh, but life through the Spirit; a circumcision made without hands, divine life, eternal life, life of the risen Head. They have become "children of God, being born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Now when Jesus left this world, He went to the Father — into the Father's house, there to prepare a place for His brethren (John 14: 1). "He ascended to His Father and our Father, to His God and our God;" and has gained for us sinners (blessed be His name for such riches of grace, such everlasting and satisfying consolations) that we should be loved of the Father, with the same love wherewith He Himself is loved (John 17: 26).

Being thus the brethren of the ascended Jesus, Son of God, the saints having the Spirit and life of their Head, sit even now in Him in heavenly places; their citizenship is in heaven; by Him they have access to God, as a Father through the Spirit. They belong to Him that is raised from the dead, and thus bring forth fruit unto God. And being now the sons of God, the world knows them not, even as it knew not Christ; for they are not of the world, even as He was not of the world. And as He is, so are they in this world; they have in Spirit followed Him out of this world into heaven. The blessings, therefore, wherewith they are blest, are blessings not of this world, or of the earth, as we have seen the Jews' were, but "spiritual blessings in the heavenlies;" as it is written, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, in the heavenlies, in Christ; according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved" (Eph. 1: 3-6).

And as children, now in the Father's house, they are waiting for the inheritance of the children, for "if children, then heirs;" they are hoping for the grace which is to be brought to them at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And as Jesus Himself is now crowned with glory, and seated at the right hand of God, as a kind of pledge of His future dominion (Ps. 110: 1, Heb. 2: 8, 9), so His brethren here, His members still suffering on earth, have received the Holy Ghost, the fruit of this His glory and exaltation to heaven, as the earnest or pledge of their inheritance with Him (2 Cor. 1: 22; 2 Cor. 5: 5; Eph. 1: 13, 14.)

Now of what are the sons of God to be the heirs? Surely of the same glory of which the First-born among them is Heir, as it is written "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ;" and again, "for our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, Who shall change our vile bodies into the likeness of His glorious body;" and again, "when Christ Who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory." So that the kingdom, prepared by the Father for the Son, is to be the scene of the common glory and joy of the blessed "family in heaven," the portion of the children of whom He is the First-born: all are to be in the Father's house, and seated on the Son's throne (John 14: 2, Rev. 3: 21). Their inheritance is heavenly; "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." Therein will be the glory of the celestial, which is one, inasmuch as they shall be presented in the likeness of the risen and glorified body of Jesus, and have their place manifestly there where now in Spirit they dwell, that is, the Father's house in the heavenlies, the place of the children; while the glory of the restored Israel will be here that of the terrestrial which is another, inasmuch as in bodies of flesh and blood they shall occupy the earth, the place of the servants, the footstool and not the throne, the place of subjects under Christ, and not the seat of government with Christ. And thus in the manifestation of the sons of God, in the dispensation of the fulness of times when all things in heaven and in earth shall be gathered together in one, even in Christ, He Who once descended into the lower parts of the earth, and then ascended up far above all heavens, shall, according to the decree of the everlasting covenant, fill all things, shall be brought forth in the earthly glory of Son of David, and in the heavenly glory of the Son of God; His risen saints and restored nation having, their several associations with Him, "of Whom every family in heaven and earth is named," and "every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

This, His glory, as filling all things in heaven and in earth, the Lord appears to anticipate in a very early stage of His ministry, as we read in the first chap. of John's Gospel. — When Nathaniel believed, he made a large and blessed confession to the glory of Christ, "Rabbi," says he, "Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. And He said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, [hereafter] ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." From this confession to Him as Son of God and King of Israel, the Lord catches, as it were, the glimpse of His then far distant glory, as the Centre, and Mediator, and Life of all things in heaven and in earth, in Whom all things are to consist, and be gathered; though they are still to be distinct as things heavenly, and things earthly.*

*I have not entered into the place which the nations will hold in this system of "the dispensation of the fulness of times;" nor have I at all considered what condition of things will succeed that dispensation, when the new heavens and the new earth are to be manifested and "God shall be all in all." For my only purpose is to show that, in the dispensation to which I am referring, there will be distinction between the things in heaven, and the things in earth, while all are under our blessed Lord Jesus, Son of man in His diverse glories of Son of God, and Son of David; and that this distinction is clearly intimated to us, as typified in the dispensation of God by Israel or His earthly people, and by the church or His heavenly people.

Thus then there does appear to me to be most clearly recognised in scripture a distinct purpose with God in His dispensation of Israel and of the glorified; in other words, in the manifestation of the Christ (Who is God's ordinance for all His purposes, to Whom be glory for ever!) as Son of David and as Son of God. But as I judge that a practical conclusion, on a subject interesting to us all who desire to know and do the will of our gracious God and Saviour, very much rests on a just apprehension of this distinction, I desire to add a little more upon it. And I do it in much subjection to my brethren in the Lord, knowing indeed but in small part, and therefore able to speak but as so knowing. However, I speak according to clear conclusions of my own mind.

In the Jewish dispensation, Christ spake on earth, but now He is speaking from heaven (Heb. 12: 25). The position of the Head being thus changed, the position of His elect, as those who are gathered to Him, and who are to witness to Him, must be also changed. And so I judge, we shall find from the word of God that it has changed. As for instance, Israel was to go forth, as on earth, with "a two-edged sword in their hand," utterly to destroy city after city; the church, "with power from on high" to subdue sinners to the God of the spirits of all flesh. The characteristic action of Israel may be read in such a passage as this — "So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings, he left none remaining but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded," Israel being made the witness of God's glory among the nations, and the rod of His anger. But the characteristic action of the church or saints, on the contrary, may be read in these words — "Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places." Their conflict is with a world that lies in the wicked one, with him that has the power of death; and their strength lies only through the Spirit in the name of the Lord, in the name of Him Who is not now on earth as He was when, in the ark of Israel, He arose and His enemies were scattered, and they who hated Him fled before Him; or as when He headed the Lord's host as their Captain before the walls of Jericho.

So the characteristic confession of Israel before God was this, "a Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation great, mighty, and populous; and the Egyptians evil-entreated us and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage; and when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression; and the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness." This was a confession that they, who were bondslaves in a strange land, had been blessed with the fulness of all earthly good. But the confession of the saints is expressed by the cry "Abba Father;" a confession that they, who had been alienated from the life of God, are now brought nigh, and made sons, and have the life and Spirit of sons sent forth into their hearts.

So the characteristic glory of Israel may be seen in such a chapter as 2 Chr. 9; where king Solomon is admired in the eyes of all the nations, passing all the kings of the earth, as he then did, in riches and wisdom, all of them seeking his presence, and bringing him offerings, while that of the church may be seen (far, far different) in the description thus given of the early saints at Jerusalem. "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither said any of them that aught of the things that he possessed was his own, but they had all things common; and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all."

I do confess that this view of the divers glories of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Son of David and Son of God, thus distinguishing the proper characteristic purpose of each dispensation, Jewish and Christian, leads me very distinctly to the conclusion, that the church of the New Testament saints is not to concern itself with the regulation of the earth; that it comes down from its only due position, as ascended into heaven in its Head, when it links itself with the powers and authorities of the world for the purpose of managing the world's interests, or preserving its good order. For her Head, to Whom and to Whose position she is to witness, we must still repeat it, is not on earth, but in heaven; and is not directly undertaking, for the present, the management of a kingdom which is of this world. Nor will He, until He regain dominion in Israel, and be seated on the throne of David, His only recognised organ of earthly power and rule. But He is not in this position yet; "now is my kingdom not from hence." "He came to His own but His own received Him not." He was offered to Israel as their King; for that word of the prophet was fulfilled, "tell ye the daughter of Zion, behold thy King cometh unto thee." But Israel cast the heir of the vineyard out, saying, "come let us kill Him." Then did God the Father exalt this rejected Stone, taking Him up far above all heavens. Jesus, by the Jewish enmity was chased, as it were, from earth to heaven; but the Father has made this wrath of man to praise Him, and has by occasion of it, constituted Jesus the Head of all things in heaven; for now the rejected stone, the descended and ascended Saviour, shall in due time be manifested as the head of the corner, the filler of all things in heaven as well as on earth. Israel gave up their testimony to their head on earth, by losing their separate place as God's nation, acknowledging other lords than Jehovah, and selling themselves to the kingdoms of the Gentile's. The church gives up her testimony to her Head in heaven, by settling herself down in the earth, and combining with the powers and principles of the world, too ungraciously forgetful that her blessed suffering Lord was cast out by the world, and given no place on earth.

Many, "beloved in the Lord," are found in a system which professedly makes the church the minister of civil order; the state, in return, the patron of the church. This is clearly, in my judgment, an unwarranted condition for the church to be found in; and thus, as far as the influence of this judgment extends, I am necessarily separated from them. I might speak of much in the details of the same system, from which I feel constrained to withdraw myself, being, as I judge, anti-scriptural, and not merely non-scriptural; such as the church requiring her ministers to recognise all her baptized children as dying equally in the true hope of eternal life; but it is not my wish or purpose to go into any such details, but to state simply this one foundation principle. But then how am I to view this separation? how am I to be affected by it? When I say, as unfeignedly I do, that in many things they honour their Lord and love Him with a constant and fervent love, how dare I view it, or how can I be affected by it, but as a cause of much humiliation before our common Lord and Master, and with great sorrow of heart? With many of them, if they will let me thus claim with them sympathy in Jesus, I take constant and most sweet counsel, and do confess that their christian spirit and deportment will at times make me pause and ask myself, Could I be right in formally withdrawing from public recognised communion with such saints of God? But then the scripture of truth, which is to be the rule rather than the suggestions of our affections, never brings me to this pause, nor awakens a doubt of the untenableness of their position; and therefore, though we have many brethren to love, we have but one Lord to obey.

I grant we have to listen to the church, as a brother has lately, I think well, insisted on.* I do not deny the discretionary power which he has in a very interesting and instructive manner advocated, but the church's discretion must ever be regulated by the written mind of her great Head (the wife is subject to the law of her husband); and the establishment, not to speak here of many of her ordinances, which clearly appear to me to be much more than merely non-scriptural, as I have submitted, takes a position not only unwarranted by the scriptures, but plainly opposed to the views which they present of the church of Christ. But if I do thus honour these brethren, who are still in the establishment, as among the Lord's dearest and most honoured servants in this day of ours, can I allow myself in any thing that may appear to be a rejoicing in, or exulting because of, this separation? Can I say of any given communion, to the exclusion of these brethren, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these?" Assuredly I could not do so. I could not adopt any judgment that would thus have them on the outside.

*See Letter by the Rev. J. C. Crosthwaite. Tims, Dublin. Mr. C. seems to think, that if he can establish the church's title to a discretion in instituting ordinances which are merely non-scriptural, he thereby has settled the question between the church of England and Dissenters; but I feel that the question is left as open as ever.

But I must at the same time say, that I do not feel indebted to the system with which these brethren are connected for the christian zeal and temper which grace them. I am very far from being able to see, as is commonly observed among us, and urged too as a strong persuasive for continuing in the establishment, that the Lord is thus marking it with His approbation, and honoring it by having such servants of His in it. Were this so, we should naturally look for the brightest exhibitions of christian zeal and temper in those who were most subject to the system, if by the system itself the Lord were working among us, and putting honor upon it as His own ordinance. But the contrary is glaringly the fact. It is in those who are, every day, in various ways, asserting a measure of independency, and working out of the recognised rule, that the energy of the Spirit chiefly manifests itself; while much of mere formality, and the substitution of respectability among men for the patience of Jesus, will be found there, where the system is most exactly enforced. I think I am conscious that I do not desire to be a judge, but some things are too plain not to be read by even those who run.

And while I thus clearly and thankfully acknowledge what is of the Lord's spirit in these brethren, I will also acknowledge, that, because the world, in its spirit and practice, has been so much retained, while separation from it, in its religious services, has been so formally adopted, little of the blessing and power of God does now rest on those who are now called Dissenters. We are all weak, by reason of much unfaithfulness — much individual personal unfaithfulness from all of us, more or less, "seeking our own, and not the things that are Jesus Christ's." And oh! will not these things, in the judgment of the Lord, overweigh correct ideas or clear views, as they are too often boasted to be, of the nature and government of a christian church? What are correct ideas and clear views, "being alone?" There is such a thing as, by letter and circumcision, transgressing the law. What spirit can God recognise with His blessing in such a state of things as the present, of weakness as respects the saints individually, and of distraction as respects them together, but that of sighing and crying, that of sympathy with Jesus weeping over Jerusalem? Was it not comely in David to mourn for Saul, and to slay the Amalekite who brought him tidings of his death, thinking in the pride and naughtiness of his heart, that he should be rewarded for his mis-placed zeal? And shall we, instead of this mourning, glory in that which is enough, even more than the death of king Saul, to make the enemies of God to rejoice, the daughters of the uncircumcised to triumph? For surely the beauty of our Israel is departed, and brethren, such as David and Jonathan, are kept asunder by the false and apostate principles that are corrupting us throughout. Let us judge the systems of the day to be as bad as they can be: the worse they are, the less proper objects are they for our exulting over. Oh! let us not lie against the truth; such zeal comes not from above. Let us rather strengthen the things that remain among us by humbleness of mind and confession before our God, knowing that our present distractions arise rather by reason of the worldliness and unbelief that are in the hearts of us, the professed servants of God, than from any external causes. Let us learn our individual responsibility to do what we can for a speedy recovery of some of that goodliness which has been lost to us; or, at least, that the little that remains perish not.

Let us embrace all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, lest we be keeping ourselves out of the scope and range of the fulness of the blessing of the gospel, for peace is pronounced on all such. Let us cease from judging one another, and rather set ourselves to exhort one another to love and to good works, reminding one another that, if we sow bountifully, we shall also reap bountifully. Let our hope enter into that within the veil, let us cast out our anchor there, and wish for the day, the day of the Lord, remembering that "unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time, without sin unto salvation." And therefore let each ask himself, Am I ever in spirit saying, "Come, Lord Jesus," as a faithful soul that has given itself to the Lord? Am I looking for His return with those longing desires, "make haste my beloved, be thou like to a roe or to a young hart on the mountains of spices?"

I would desire, with one heart and voice, to join my beloved brethren in the establishment, and say "Almighty God, may it please Thee of thy gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of Thine elect, and to hasten Thy kingdom; that we, with all those who are departed in the true faith of Thy holy name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in Thine eternal and everlasting glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Appendix.

The restoration of the kingdom of Israel, under the Son of David, is the special fruit of the resurrection of Jesus; the ascension serves the uses of this present dispensation (Eph. 4: 8). Accordingly St. Peter makes a distinction between these things, telling us that the resurrection was required because of the promises made to David's throne, and that the ascension was required because of the promise of the Holy Ghost to the church (Acts 2). The prophets, in accordance with this, commonly present the hopes and revival of Israel under the figure of resurrection (Isa. 26: 19, Ezek. 37, Hosea 6: 2); and it appears that the Jews regarded the Messiah, the resurrection, and the kingdom, as substantially one and the same thing (see John 11: 25-27. Luke 23: 42).

Resurrection, in these observations, I advisedly distinguish from ascension. In many senses I know they are treated in scripture as the same. But here, by resurrection, I mean our blessed Lord's return from the grave to the earth; and, by ascension, His return from earth to heaven. It would have served the purposes of this dispensation had the Lord at once gone from the grave to heaven; for it is in Him, as in heaven, that the church finds her direct and immediate interest (Rom. 5: 10, 2 Cor. 4: 10, Eph. 4: 8, Col. 3: 1, Heb. 3: 1, Heb. 4: 14. Heb. 7: 25, Heb. 10: 12, 1 John 2: 1). She is maintained and is to come to her full stature by the virtues of the ascended Jesus; for as such He is the head of life, and dispenser of the Spirit to His members; but it is the kingdom of Israel which is to manifest the direct fruit of the resurrection, inasmuch as it is to witness Christ on earth again, the head of the nations, the restorer of the earthly human system — Son of David.

Our Lord Jesus clearly recognised Himself as Son of David, for He answered every appeal made to Him in that character. But He was more than David's Son, He was also David's Lord. Into this condition, however, He did not formally enter as to dispensation, till He ascended and was glorified at the right hand of God (Matt. 22). But then He did; and the saints, having association with Him as thus ascended, sit with Him in His glory as David's Lord; and will therefore judge the world, and the tribes of Israel.

There is such a proceeding of God as the profanation of His own ordinance. This is a judicial visitation upon His unfaithful stewards. Thus the throne of David, which was God's ordinance of earthly government, was profaned. The Lord was wroth with His anointed, He made void the covenant of His servant, He profaned His crown by casting it to the ground (Ps. 89: 38, 39). So, admitting that an apostolically appointed body is the Lords ordinance for witnessing the truth and ministering the Spirit, yet it may in like manner be profaned. The way of doing this in the two cases must differ, because the purposes of the ordinances themselves differ. Thus God profaned the throne of David when He took earthly dominion from it, allowing it to pass over into Gentile hands; for that throne was to be the holder of earthly dominion. But He profanes the apostolically appointed body (ordained, as we admit, for the ministry of the Spirit,) by withdrawing this grace from it, and allowing the fulness that is in the blessed glorified Head, to pass through a new channel. Has He done so? or has He continued to dispense His truth and grace through the Romish and established clergy of these lands, were they an apostolically appointed body, to the denial or rejection of every other agency? The truth and life of God are (as I have granted and do thankfully acknowledge) in multitudes both of men and women in the established church; but this is a very different thing from that which I am considering. For I will repeat it that, where the rules of these "apostolically appointed" bodies are most rigidly enforced, there the energy of the Spirit is not found, as he that runs may read. And are we to be moved, though a voice break from a pile of ruins, dead not living stones, crying "The temple of the Lord are these?"

*  *  *

We have in fact the blood on the mercy-seat, and the scapegoat, in Rom. 3, 4. Only the Lord's lot is set out in testimony for us as guilty to come, an ἱλαστήριον (mercy-seat) through faith in His blood. The scape-goat is as delivered for our offences (if not raised again for our justification). And propitiation, though in view of God's glory ("among whom I dwell"), still is for sins, as 1 John 2. The Lord's lot was a sin-offering, but in general for God Who was there.

The Translation of Elijah

The Translation of Elijah.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

2 Kings 1, 2.

We might read these two chapters in connection with this event, though it is only in the second of them we have it recorded.

Ahaziah, of the house of Omri, and the successor of his father Ahab on the throne of Israel, appears before us here, as in deep apostacy from the God of Israel. He was sick — and in his sickness he seeks to a god of the nations; and being withstood because of this by the servant of the God of Israel, he sends officers to take him.

This was a full expression of apostacy. And, accordingly, his death is to be read as condign, specific judgment. It was a judicial death, and so was that of his captains and their fifties, who had entered into the spirit of their master, and were the representatives and executors of his iniquity.*

*The third chapter may be received as a repentant remnant saved in the day of judgment.

This was all in righteousness. The king of Israel had perfected sin, and judgment was executed upon him.

In Luke 9 this is referred to. When the Lord Jesus was refused entrance into a Samaritan village, His disciples would fain have acted the part of Elijah upon Ahaziah's captains, but the Lord forbad them. They did not know what spirit they were of; that is, they did not discern the time; they did not understand the Lord and His business in this world. They mistook the dispensation, and would have treated it as a time of judgment. It was in intelligence — in that light which distinguishes things that differ — that they were wanting. Their affections were right; their purpose and design will be answered in due season, when the day of vengeance comes. So that it was not in affection that they erred, but in dispensational knowledge; and thus, in true holiness, or in the holiness of the truth. Their Lord had come to save, not to kill. He was here among men to bless them, not to judge them.

This is important, for it tells us, as many other witnesses do, that true holiness is conduct according to light or truth, according to the way and place of God at the given time. "Everything is beautiful in its season," That which is holy in divine seasonableness, is unholy when found elsewhere.

This may surely instruct us; but the scene in 2 Kings 1 has but little relief in it. We are in the next Place, however, introduced to a very different thing. (2 Kings 2)

We are encouraged to enter upon it with the brightest expectations, being set on the eve of the translation of Elijah: for the time, we are told, had come "when the Lord, would take up Elijah to heaven by a. whirlwind." But there is much incidental instruction here.

At an earlier moment Elisha had forfeited, as I may express it, the mantle of his master. He had not proved himself to be fully up to the possession of it; his heart had not been. thoroughly single, and from that moment to the time of this chapter we had not seen him in company with his master. (See 1 Kings 19: 19-21) This subjects him to a fresh proof; and Elijah himself, and the sons of the prophets, are made the instruments for conducting the process under the hand of God.

Elijah tells him again and again to go back, as he himself was pursuing the stages of his journey from Gilgal to the eastern side of the Jordan. And the sons of the prophets, whether at Bethel or at Jericho, come forth again and again to exercise his spirit, and try the earnestness and stability of his faith, by casting a shadow across his path, and thus bring his soul into perplexity and doubt.

This is a common case. The Lord, at times, with some of His choicest servants, will enter upon severe processes of purifying. He purges the vessels of His house, that they may be fitted for the Master's use. And in doing this He will use different instruments, as He pleases, in His wisdom. It may be the direct action of His own word and Spirit; it may be more immediately through His saints, or through the people of the world. Here He exercises Elisha by the word of Elijah — His own word, I may say, expressed through His prophet. He will prove, after this manner, by the patient, successive stages of a long journey, whether Elisha's heart were indeed now freed (as once it had not been), from the entanglements of mere human influences, from the honey of home and kindred associations. And He also allows him to be exercised by the ways of those who were not in his elevation, a generation of saints who were not standing in the light and certainty of his own spirit, and who, therefore, by their communications, were well fitted to cast a shadow across his path, or introduce some perplexity into his soul. But he stands these tests, and pursues his way, in full and close company with his master, the prophet of God, who was about to be translated to heaven. He has his answers ready, whether for Elijah or for the sons of the prophets; and we find him calm, decided, patient, undistracted all along the way from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, from Jericho to Jordan, and then across the river, to wherever, in short (for he knew not the way any more than Abraham of old), Elijah, that is, the hand of God, the God of glory, might be pleased to call him or to draw him.

Surely this was recovery. There was no longer a going back to kiss father or mother, but a single heart that made the Lord and His presence its place, the Lord and His pleasure its business.

The sons of the prophets at length retire. They stand to view afar off, while Elijah, with a stroke of his mantle, divides the waters of Jordan, making a passage for himself (and for Elisha, too, if he should have courage to follow on in such a wondrous, perilous path) to cross the river. And he does so. Then Elijah himself also closes the severe and heated trial through which he had been putting his friend and minister. For when they together reach the opposite side of the river, he says to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee." For every testing time shall end — every process for purging shall have its measure. Men's iniquities against the Lord shall close in the judgment of righteousness; God's discipline of His saints shall close in the. possession of glory. Elijah yields; and Elisha has to write his own story for the future. "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee."

This reminds me of Solomon in 2 Chr. 1; for after he had approved himself as taking his throne in right spirit, God appears to him and says to him, "Ask what I, shall give thee." And Elisha's answer to Elijah, is as Solomon's answer to God. Solomon does not ask for the life of his enemies, nor for riches and honours for himself, but. for wisdom to execute the service appointed him over the Lord's people. So Elisha here simply replies to Elijah, "Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me."

This was beautiful. This was aiming high; this was proposing great things; this was asking as for the right hand and the left hand place in the kingdom. "Are ye able to drink of my cup and to be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized," we might say, would be the spirit of the answer. And Elijah accordingly says to him, "Thou hast asked a hard thing; nevertheless if thou see me, when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so."

The single eye is the secret of pure spiritual energy. "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." These were the terms then, and these are the terms now.* It is not a question of life, but of strength in the Spirit. Elisha must stand it — and through grace he does. They still go on together, he and Elijah; and as they walk, they talk. But all the time the eyes of Elisha were open. His heart was upon the word of his master. He had hid the promise there; and though he may be still passing on, there is no distraction, and so with us it ought to be. We may take up one circumstance after another, and converse with them too, like Elisha here; but what is the heart affecting, where is the eye directed? Is it like this dear man's, in the right place? The walk and the talk, the circumstances of the journey, had not disturbed his spirit, nor diverted his eye; so that at the moment when the horses and chariot appeared, and Elijah was about to be carried up to heaven, Elisha's eye was upon them. He saw his ascending master, and got the mantle.

This is certainly beautiful — to be walking and talking still, still occupied with the circumstances around us, but all the time the eye kept towards the object which God had proposed to it. It is like Abraham again, whose ear was so attempered to the voice of the Lord, that the moment that voice called him, he had only to say, "Here am I."

Elisha at once used what he so prized. He took up the mantle of his master, and with it, after the manner of his master, divided the waters of the Jordan, and returned to Jericho. Here, however, I would pause to notice a matter. It is in the name of the Lord God of his ascended master, and not in that master's own name, that Elisha does this. This is so; but this is not so in the case of the apostles and their ascended master. Peter preaches that it was his ascended Lord who had sent down the Spirit; that it was His name which carried salvation with it; that it was in His name in which sinners were to be baptized for the remission of sins; that it was His name which had made the lame man to walk. (Acts 2 - 5) The name of Jesus of Nazareth is to them what the name, not of Elijah, but of the Lord God of Elijah, was to Elisha.

And further. The ascending Lord needed not a convoy, as did the prophet. He who had, afore His death, said of Himself and of His body, "destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up," now, after His resurrection, "not needing (as another has expressed it) the cleansing of that fiery baptism, nor requiring a commissioned chariot to bear Him up, did, in the far sublimer calmness of His own indwelling power, rise from the earth, and with His human body pass into the heavenly places."

This is so; and this way of distinguishing the Lord Jesus is to be seen elsewhere. As when Joshua commands the sun and the moon to stand still, much is made of it, and that day is declared to have had none like it; but when the Lord Jesus did like things, things which showed His sovereignty over the forces and the course of nature, it is treated as no wonder at all. (Joshua 10) But then, as to the great fact of this chapter (the translation of Elijah), it has, I believe, its own place character. In my sight (may I so speak?) it stands in company with the translation of Enoch in patriarchal days, and with the death and burial of Moses on Mount Pisgah, in the stricter days of Israel and the law. It took plate in the later times of the prophets, as we know.

In the progress of other ages or dispensations, earlier times and seasons, times of the fathers, of Moses and the prophets, it has been the way of the wisdom of God to give forth certain notices of His future purposes. The coming kingdom, when the Son of man shall take His lordship, and the Son of David His throne, has been the subject not only of prophecy, but of types and shadows. There have been historic pledges of it, and the faint foreshadowing of it in certain distinguished eras in the course of; Old Testament times. But so also as to the deeper mysteries of the call of. the Gentiles and of the heavenly calling, yea, indeed, of the mystery of the Church. And so, too, of the glorified "children of the resurrection." And I read the story of Enoch in the days of Genesis; the story of Moses with the Lord on Mount Pisgah; and this story of the translation of Elijah in the later days of the prophets, as witnessing that mystery in three distinct successive eras in the Old Testament times. Moses and Elijah, as we know, appear in glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. The shadowy pledges which God gave by them of old were then, in the days of the gospel, redeemed and substantiated. Moses represents the dead and risen portion of the glorified saints; Enoch and Elijah those who shall still be alive, and those translated in the day of 1 Cor. 15, or at "the coming of Christ." This has its deep interest for us.

Soon after this, the sons of the prophets betray the low, uncertain state of their souls. They are saints, but not in Elisha's elevation; and they propose to search for his. master, though they reverently acknowledge him. They, as it were, go to the empty sepulchre, and have to return rebuked and confounded. "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" Why search on the mountain or in the valleys for one that has gone to heaven? But the grace that is to be seen (and some of us have good reason to appreciate it) in thus delineating various measures and different elevations among the people of God, may be deeply and thankfully owned by us. "Some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold."

The lessons of this scripture are surely various, and each of them healthful for the soul. "Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them. The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple."

Brief Notes on the Epistle to the Ephesians

Brief Notes on the Epistle to the Ephesians.

J. G. Bellett.

Ephesians 1.

We must introduce our meditations on this epistle by recurring a little to the ways of God from the beginning; because there is a wonderful unity in His counsels, and the whole volume sets its seal to the divine thought, "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning." Therefore, when we come to a scripture like this, it is well to pause and look about us, and see its relation to previous scriptures. If I come to a merely moral scripture, such as, "Let him that stole steal no more," I may take it and use it at once, and alone, but when it is doctrinal or prophetic scripture, which opens the divine mind, I have to ask how it is introduced, and what is to come after it, because we are to be fraught with divine, intelligence — "We have the mind of Christ."

The Epistle to the Hebrews unfolds the heavens, and speaks of heavenly calling, putting you in company with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but it does not open the mystery of the church. The Epistle to the Ephesians opens the mystery of the church, but does not keep you in company with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are advancing, and we are called to distinguish between the heavenly calling and the calling of the church. So there is a fitness in considering the Epistle to the Hebrews before the Epistle to the Ephesians.

Now, why do I say the Epistle to the Hebrews opens the heavenly calling? Because it associates you with Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc. The earth at the beginning was given to the children of men. What did they do with it? They forfeited it. Then what did God do with them? Well, He opened heaven to them! He gave them the earth to enjoy. They soiled and lost it by sin. Well, said He, I'll open heaven to you. This is one way in which the grace of God abounds.

What should I say of one who, when I had abused the gift which he put in my hand, put a better gift in my other hand? This is God!

Was not Adam brought back to God, and Enoch taken to heaven? I have no doubt that Abraham had the heavenly calling. They looked for a better country, "that is, an heavenly." Moses was carried up to Pisgah to bear witness of it. Enoch bore witness of it, and Elijah in a later dispensation. From the beginning there has been heavenly calling, but not church calling. So, when the apostle comes to address the Hebrews, who were brought from a Jewish root, he talks of heavenly calling, but does not go beyond it. When he comes to address himself to the Ephesians, once a Gentile people, the worshippers of the goddess Diana (but apart from all Jewish connections), he unfolds the mystery of the church — the richest thing in the counsels of God. Let me say another thing. How did God unfold His purposes in the earth? He knew a family in the loins of Abraham. They flourished into a nation in the Book of Exodus; then under judges and prophets; but they did not ripen to the culminating point of glory till God put them under a king.

He goes on from step to step till the elect family flourished, under Solomon, into a kingdom. So it is with His heavenly purposes. It is not till the apostleship of Paul is set up that they unfold in the bright culminating point of the church. God is always consistent in His ways. Let the earth be the scene of His activities, we find them unfolding till they reach the palmy days of Solomon. In His heavenly purposes we follow on till we see the church at the highest point in creation, "The fulness of him that filleth all in all." So it is impossible not to stand and say, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"

Now, having prefaced thus, we stand before the Epistle to the Ephesians. It is desirable to come up to this writing with intelligence. Here we are listeners in heavenly scenes to the same kind of thine, as we saw in earthly scenery.

Let me remind you of a passage in Colossians: "the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God"  - or, "to fill it out." (Col. 1: 25, 26.) To fill out the revelation of God — a magnificent commentary of Paul on his own ministry. Was it not left to Solomon to display the closing purpose of God in the earth by heading it with a throne? It was left to Paul to reveal in his ministry the bright magnificent point of the heavenly mysteries. We are brought up by him to the headship of Christ.

The apostle begins by addressing all the faithful in Christ Jesus. He steps over the Ephesians. So that we are all called to learn these things. "Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." This could not be said of the patriarchs. "In heavenly places" they would have been associated with us; but these are blessings in company with Christ.

Then, having put you in this peculiar place, he unfolds the divine roll of blessings to you. First, chosen in Him before the world was. These high privileges began before the foundation of the world. Could I say that properly of Abraham? Certainly he was chosen before the foundation of the world, but you are chosen "in him." The divine purposes rested in a peculiar way on a peculiar people.

Then, predestination always follows on election. Election touches the person; predestination the place or condition: "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ . . . he hath made us accepted in the beloved." Now is not that a peculiar form of adoption? Do I believe that Adam was a son of God? Indeed I do. Do I believe that he was "accepted in the beloved"? No, I do not. Do I believe that angels are sons of God? Indeed I do. Do I believe they are "accepted in the beloved"? No, I do not. So that here again is a peculiarity. It is an adoption of the highest order. We have the joy and liberty of the Beloved's sonship. He goes on to say, "In whom we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of sins." Why, to be sure, that is a thing of course. Who would think of asking a person up in heavenly places, "Are you forgiven?" Did you ever observe in the parable of the prodigal son that the father never says he forgives him? How could he? How could he frame his lips to say, "I forgive you"? You and I ought to walk in the sunshine of our calling in such a way as to assume forgiveness as a thing at the foot of the hill, while we are up at the heights. Let the music and dancing, the ring and the shoes, tell me I am forgiven. So the Father treats the prodigal, and so the Spirit treats us in Ephesians 1. Yet the soul is constantly busying itself about forgiveness when it should be viewing the magnificence of its calling in Christ. There is a style in love that love could never rid itself of. The father would have wept to say, "I forgive you." Would not you be ashamed to tell one coming back in sorrow, confessing his fault, "I forgive you"? Talk of a father, on the neck of his weeping, penitent child, saying, "I forgive you"! How little we know of the ways of love!

Now, to go on. He abounds towards us in all wisdom and knowledge, having opened to us the bosom secret — all things gathered together in Christ. That is a secret never made known before. In the prophet Isaiah we get a beautiful picture of the millennial earth; but do we ever get the millennial heavens with Christ at their head? Was it ever said by Isaiah that all things in heaven and earth should be headed up in the glorified Man? "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance." We are heirs with Him. Was that ever unfolded before? And till the inheritance comes we get the Holy Ghost. We get Him here under two titles — a seal, and an earnest. A seal of present salvation; an earnest of future inheritance. When I look at the place of the Holy Ghost, in the mystery of redemption, it is wonderful to see the official glories that attach to Him here on earth. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we have the official glories of Christ. Here we are called to witness the official glories of the Holy Ghost in this dispensation. What a blessed, glorious thing — to take the secrets of the divine bosom, and make them known to us! To seal us by His presence as possessors of present salvation, and to be the earnest of our inheritance! Ah, it is wonderful. I could not move a step in company with a soul not pregnant with the blessedness of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost being the One with whom we have to do.

"The purchased possession" here is the whole scene — the whole creation. It is purchased, but not yet redeemed. The blood of Christ has purchased the creation as well as you; but it is not yet redeemed, and while in that condition you have the Holy Ghost as an earnest. When it is redeemed you will be the heir of it. Are you redeemed yet? You are purchased, but you wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of your body, and that you will never get till God puts forth power as well as blood. The Apocalypse is the display of redemption; the gospel is the display of purchase — but the purchased thing is not redeemed till God puts forth power to rescue it from the hands of the destroyer.*

*Fully redeemed, I mean.

At verse 15 the apostle ceases to be a teacher and becomes an intercessor — and you will find that he never in prayer pulls down what, as a teacher, he had built up. You will sometimes hear people asking God to love them. I could never make such a prayer as that. I am to pray for a deeper sense of His love. Paul does not ask God to give them this, and the other; but he asks Him that they may have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him — that the eyes of their understanding may be enlightened. Oh, for a better heart to know these things! But to ask God to love me, to make me a co-heir with Christ, to appoint me to heavenly places in Him! I will make a prayer much more humbling than that, I am so blessed in my calling; so poor in my enjoyment! If God has lit a candle, I will not ask Him to light it, but to take the film from my eyes, that I may see what He has done, what this magnificent purpose is, and the power that has brought us there. So he prays that you may have an eye to discern the brightness of the heavenly glory, and the resurrection-power that has conducted you from such ruins to such glories.

Ephesians 2.

We have reached the second chapter, but we must look back at the first to resume the course of our thoughts. We were observing that we must distinguish between the heavenly calling and the church calling. The church has heavenly calling; but it does not follow that all who have heavenly calling have church calling. Heavenly calling arose from divine disappointment in the earth. The earth was given to Adam. Adam forfeited it, and the Lord then takes His elect to heaven.

The thought introduces you to the idea of relief.

The Lord found another way to bless His elect. If the earth is lost, where will He put His saints? The blessed God of all grace says, I know how I will dispose of them; I will put them in heaven. The Lord never merely repairs a breach; He brings a better thing out of the ruin. So the forfeiture of the earth opened heaven, and the heavenly man finds himself in a better place than if he had never lost the earth.

The two dealings of God with the earth are in government and in calling out — strangership and citizenship alternately. Citizenship when God is dealing with, and settling the earth; strangership when God is calling people out of it. He has now called the church into strangership. That is the way to introduce our thoughts to the present dispensation. We see how God has been put into His present dispensational attitude. The earth is polluted, and God is put upon to take Himself and His people to heaven. It is a dispensation of intense strangership. But the church is something more than that. Moses, Abraham, etc., were taken to heaven as witnesses of heavenly calling. Ephesians 1 introduces a new thought. We are not only in heaven, but in Christ in heaven. See how full the chapter is with the word "in." We are blessed in heavenly places in Christ — accepted in the Beloved. God has chosen us in Him. In whom we have obtained an inheritance. We are raised in Christ. Seated in Him in heavenly places; and, when the world has told its story, you will find yourself a co-inheritor in Christ. That is a new thing; that is the body of Christ. That is one peculiarity of the church.

Let me call your thoughts a little aside. We see in the argument of the Galatians Abraham brought into our company; and in the argument of the Hebrews Abraham is brought into our company. Not so in the Ephesians. This is the divine accuracy of the Holy Ghost. In Galatians we do not get the church; we get sonship and heirship. I do not doubt that Abraham was as perfect as I am; but the moment the Spirit unfolds and displays the body of Christ Abraham has no place in the argument, we lose sight of him. I see you and myself, but not Abraham.

Is there not a meaning in these distinctions? Can I put myself in the presence of three such august witnesses to the mind of Christ and not see these things? I have no warrant for saying that Abraham takes a place in the church. Now, let me just ask you, Are you prepared for this? Is there any analogy in the divine dealings? I think there is. By-and-by the Lord will fill the whole face of the earth. All nations will bow to His sceptre. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. But is that all I get in the millennial earth? No: I get the twelve tribes in special nearness. I get the land of Israel in special relationship to God. And I get in the midst of the tribes a royal people, and a priestly people. This is further separation; and I get a Jerusalem. No one can read the prophetic letter and not see that Jerusalem will have her special place, seated in her beauty, "The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." With that divine analogy I travel to the heavens. There will be beautiful varieties there — the noble army of martyrs, the goodly fellowship of the prophets. But, as Jerusalem will take the chief place on earth, so the church will take the chief place in heaven. So we may be prepared for what is revealed under the title of "the mystery."

Do you remember when Israel stood between the Red Sea and the hosts of Egypt what is said to them? "Stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah." They had got from under the claims of the destroying angel. They were in the salvation. of God; but God had secrets in the cloud not yet unfolded to them. There was a glory there that could scatter the hosts in the ]Red Sea. It could turn one side, and take the wheels off the Egyptian chariots. It could turn the other, and make crystal walls on either side of the Israelites. So, in standing before the Ephesians, we do not come to see justification by blood, but to let the rich purpose of God unfold itself to our gaze. How blessed are these divine ways! Are we satisfied to know the blood on the lintel has delivered us? All leans on that; but still I say, Stand by, and mark the secrets  - go and inquire into the cloudy glory before you. This is just the attitude to take up in Ephesians.

Now mark this: the moment the history of Israel closed in the Babylonish captivity, the glory departed. The glory never went over to the Gentile. The sword went; the glory never. A great deal of your intelligence of scripture depends on your taking up a right attitude in presence of it. If you know what point you are standing on, it gives you a divine advantage. Now, in standing before Ezekiel, we see that the glory has gone up to heaven, and the sword has gone to the Gentile. His the glory ever come back? It has; not to accompany the sword of Caesar, but shrouded in the humiliation of the Man of Nazareth. The sword had failed to keep the earth in order. We know where the glory dwells. It has not accompanied the sword of Caesar, as it did the sword of David and Solomon. The glory is as much apart from the sword now as when it went up before Ezekiel and the sword went to the Gentile. The powers that be are not ordained of Jesus; they are ordained of God as God. Power belongs to God in His supreme place. Jesus expresses God brought into certain conditions and relationships. All dignities belong to Jesus in title; but we could not look at Him yet and call Him King of kings, and Lord of lords. The epitome of the remnant's religion is, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." In a theocracy, Caesar and God are together. Now, I must recognise God's domain and Caesar's domain. I must take knowledge of the confusion, and not say that the glory is returned to link itself with the sword; or He who said, "Who made me a ruler or a judge?" would have been a very different person in this world.'

Do you and I detect the unity and variety of the divine volume? It is a beautiful whole, but infinite in variety.

Thus, having seen our attitude, we are entering on the second chapter. We are let down a little here, but only to take up an important truth; to see out of what we are called. The chapter distinguishes itself into three parts. From verse 1 to 7 we have the subject of death and life; from verse 7 to 10 we have the subject of good works; and from verse 10 to the end, distance and nearness.

What manner of people were we when God took us up to baptise us into the body of Christ? Our condition was death — a profound moral ruin. What is the verdict that lies on us? "Dead in trespasses and sins." But, then, what condition are we brought into by Christ? The contrast is very fine. It is life of the highest order that has been imparted to us. We are linked with Christ Himself. How suitable, having shown us our high calling in the first chapter, to show us in the second the place out of which we were called! Our death-state in nature could not be lower; our life-estate in Christ could not be higher.

Another subject is good works, and I am charmed with the beauty of it. "Not of works, lest any man should boast."

As far as good works could have been the ground of boasting, they are shut out by God; but you are created of God in such a way that you must be bringing them forth. John's epistle shows us the same thing; our very new creation secures them.

Then, to the end of the chapter we get the subject of alienation and nearness. This is just like death and life. Two things attach to us: in our own person, either death or life; in relation to God, either alienation or nearness. I look at myself, and see death in me, but as to life, I have been quickened with the highest form of life a creature could enjoy. So by nature nothing could be more distant than my alienation: "No hope, and without God in the world." Essentially cut off from Him, my nearness now in Christ is ineffable. It could not be more perfect. It is right we should have low thoughts of ourselves, but the value of Christ rests upon every stone of the temple. The whole temple is built in the Lord; and then, when built, what other glory is put upon it? The Holy Ghost dwells there.

Thus we have disposed of the first two chapters. The first unfolds our position in Christ; the second draws us aside to look at ourselves. He shows me first, in my own person, dead — then in alienation from God. Then He reverses it, and shows me what manner of life I have got, and what manner of nearness I have got; and there is not a single feeble thought in it. Have you feeble thoughts? They belong to nature. They are not the breathings of the Holy Ghost. They are not the counsels of God touching you. He is not weak when He delineates your condition in nature. He is equally strong when He delineates your condition in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 3.

We will now read from the opening of chapter 3 to Ephesians 4: 16. When we meditate on such a scripture as the Epistle to the Ephesians, we ought to take care that knowledge be not overvalued; that we do not give it a disproportionate place. When Nicodemus came to the Lord to inquire into heavenly secrets, He turned him back from being a mere inquirer as to heavenly objects, to begin with himself. So Paul refused to bring out the mystery to the Corinthians because of their low moral standing. So we ought to approach Ephesian truth rather cautiously, looking at our own moral condition. The Lord's dealing with Nicodemus was morally of one character with Paul's dealing with the Corinthians. So there is a moral title to breathe Ephesian atmosphere, or else we might get giddy on such heights. We must tread softly, not timidly as if they were not our own. These deepest secrets of the bosom belong to us; but the vessel is to be fitted morally to receive them.

Now we, were distinguishing in the first chapter between the heavenly calling and the calling of the church; and in the second chapter we were looking at our death and life condition, and our alienated and near condition. In entering on the third chapter we resume the mystery. Did you ever see a moral beauty in this chapter being a parenthesis! It has struck me a good deal, the mystery being a parenthesis, that it should be here, unfolded in a parenthetic chapter.

Here we get the church more largely opened out to us. Paul was the depositary of this mystery, and he got it by revelation. You will say he got everything by revelation; and so he did, as he tells us in Galatians. Where does Paul date his apostleship? From Christ in the flesh? No; from Christ in glory. Where the other apostles? From Christ in the flesh — the Lord walking down here. But Paul never knew Christ in the flesh. So specific was his calling, and so specific the truth committed to him. By revelation, then, the mystery was made known to him.

Now, why does he say, "in few words"? Why, if he had spent chapters on it, it would have been but few words. If all that the Lord had done had been written, the world itself would not contain the books that should be written, John tells us in a note of admiration. Just so; this thing was so magnificent that to spend chapters on it would have been but few words. You and I want to find these notes of admiration in ourselves. They are very suited to us. "He made known unto me the mystery . . . which in other ages was not made known ... that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs," not with the Jews merely, but with Christ. The body will have Jews in it; but still it is characteristically Gentile. So he loses sight of the Jews, and tells the Gentiles that they are fellow-heirs with Christ.

Here we have a new kind of inheritance — to be of the same body, and fellow-heirs with the Son of His love; not Gentiles grafted on a body of Jews. "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints." This is characteristic. The Jews were taken up because they were the least of all nations. You were taken up because you were a poor uncircumcised distant Gentile, with no hope or God; and Paul was taken up because he was less than the least of all saints. He takes the beggar from the dung-hill. That is the way of God.

Now, what was the operation of the mystery? "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." This reminds us of Colossians 1: 25, Paul's ministry came "to fulfil [or fill out] the word of God." You will say, Will you put it above the ministry of Christ? Indeed I do, dispensationally. The ways of God shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. What light we stand in! We are in the light as God is in the light. The multiform, variegated wisdom of God is now told out in all its forms of beauty. That which I now get is high calling into fellow-heirship; one body with the Lord of glory. I have reached the very head itself, and sit down in sight of the coronation of Christ and His elect. So I have completed it; I have reached the manifold wisdom of God. Then he comes down a little, "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him." How he loves to put that foundation under our feet! If we are in the light where God dwells, we are in the citadel of strength which God has erected. It would not do to be in the light if we were not surrounded by the citadel.

The apostle now becomes a suppliant, as he did before in Ephesians 1. Having again rehearsed the mystery, he becomes in verse 14 a man of prayer for us. In chapter 1 he prays to the God of our Lord Jesus; and he prays that you may know the glory that awaits you, and the strength that is conducting you there; and he prays to the God of our Lord Jesus.

Here his prayer is that you may know the love that has destined you there; and he prays to the Father of our Lord Jesus. His heart instinctively turns itself to the Father's bosom, which is the source of all our eternal blessedness: "Out of thy heart thou didst it," as David says. And does not your heart instinctively dictate this distinction, as you find yourself in prayer with God in glory, the Father in love, and Christ in salvation. When I think of glory and strength I am in company with the God of the Lord Jesus. When I think of love, I am in company with the Father of the Lord Jesus. These are evidences in the book that address themselves to the conscience. Scripture is a great self-evidencing body of light. Then he makes his prayer. One little word we must pause on: "Of whom the whole family," etc. Critics say a better translation is, "every family," and I accept it from the whole context.

I believe there are to be households in heaven as well as on earth. I believe when I take an intelligent view of the coming millennial heavens I see various families, as well as on the millennial earth. I see principalities, thrones, dominions; and I see the church as the body of Christ carried and seated above all. There may be, as was quoted before, "the noble army of martyrs," "the goodly fellowship of the prophets." There may be a patriarchal household, and a prophetic household in the world to come; but the church of the living God, in company with her Head, will be there above all.

It is a fine thing to read astronomy and geography after this manner.

There will be a heaven, by-and-by, studded with the sons of God — with morning stars! and there will be no jealousies or envyings among them.

We want largeness of thought; and largeness of thought need not take us out of accuracy of thought.

Having closed this parenthetic chapter, and its parenthetic purpose, we are entering the fourth chapter. He resumes what he was saying in Ephesians 3: 1, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord." That again is characteristic, that the church should have her high calling told out from a prison in Rome. If we walked a natural path and died a natural death, we should go from prisons and stakes to Christ in glory. The saint should be an unresisting witness against the world. The world thinks separation from it an insult; and it will not be insulted without revenge. So Paul unfolds the mystery from the gloomy dungeons of Rome. The church is a martyred thing on the earth.

Now he tells us to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We should be cherishing that temper of soul that makes us in honour esteem one another. What a beautiful casket in which to deposit such a treasure! "All lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering." In the moral history of Christendom pride has broken that casket. Then he shows what the unity of the Spirit is, which we cannot destroy. We may break the casket, and expose the treasure, but we cannot break it. Do we come from north, south, east, and west, Jews and Gentiles? When we sit down together, it is in one Lord, ,one faith, one baptism.

We must pause a little on the verses that follow. Suppose I say, We must look back to Genesis 3. You may answer, These are very distant scriptures, both locally and in the material. But there is a beautiful connection between them. In Genesis 3 we see the victory of the serpent and the ruin of man. In Ephesians 4 we see the conquest of Christ and the redemption of man. It is the undoing of the mischief of Genesis 3. Satan made man a drudge on the earth and a captive to his lusts. The Lord comes to make the devil and his hosts His captives. There is a magnificent moral opposition in this. And what has He done with the old captive He puts him in a more wonderful place than that out of which Satan took him. When He comes to make the hosts of hell His captives, He will let those hosts of hell learn what He can do with him that was once hell's captive. He has made us independent of everything. We are not only made proof against the deceiver, but we grow up by resources in ourselves. The church grows up with energies deposited in herself. He makes captivity captive, on the one hand, and on the other hand shows what He is about to do with that poor thing that the serpent once ruined. The story is reversed since Genesis 3. We get the captivity of man, and the glorification of man. There the doctrinal part ends.

Now, how shall our souls deal with it? Shall we be prepared for such magnificent disclosures of God's mind? Are they too weighty for us? I have often felt it so. Intercourse with men on the footstool is so pleasant; but that arises from a quantity of the human mixing with that which should be unmixed. So he prays that we might be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man. The human mind is not able to measure these things. If my heart were opened to the sense of what the Lord Jesus is, I should say, "Nearer, my Lord, to Thee; nearer to Thee!" The footstool may be very pleasant, but, "nearer to Thee!" That Christ may dwell in my heart, and not the scene around me; and that I may know His love, which passeth knowledge.

Ephesians 4.

I observed that the doctrinal part of the epistle closes at Ephesians 4: 16. We will read to the end of the chapter. Let us just retrace the doctrinal teaching of the epistle. The first grand characteristic we are given about the calling of the church is, that it is a calling in Christ. So we find in chapter 1 the word "in" abounds. "Seated in heavenly places in him," "Accepted in the beloved," etc., etc.; and it is not only present possessions in Christ, but our interest in Him was before the world began (ver. 4), and after the world closes. (Ver. 11.) You will tell me all the ransomed rest on sovereignty, and so they do, and the very angels, too, who kept their first estate; but the character of church-election is that it is not mere abstract election, but election "in him," and you never leave Him.

The church finds herself in closest connection with Christ from before the foundation of the world till the glory after the world has ran its course. This is the first thought about the church. These things are not predicated of Israel. It is the peculiar calling of the church to be linked and bound up with Christ. Then this church has been "hid in God." It was, so to speak, God's bosom secret, the secret that lay nearest to His heart and deepest in His counsels. We do not find the election of the worthies of old spoken of in that way of mysterious beauty and intimacy. It was hid in God from all ages up to the ministry of Paul.

The Epistle to the Ephesians is an instance of accumulation of language. Language grows on the thoughts of the Spirit Himself. Will you tell me, if your soul is bubbling up with some commanding thought, that you will not tell it out again and again, multiply words about it, and even become eloquent? For the heart, not the head,. is the parent of eloquence. That, is the style of the Spirit in bringing out this secret in this epistle. We get "the praise of his glory," and "the riches of the glory," and "the praise of the glory of his grace," and "the exceeding riches of his grace." So in Ephesians 2 when He comes to show those who are the objects of this calling. When He shows their death-estate, description after description is given of them; and when you are brought to see your nearness, again the Spirit multiplies descriptions of what you are.

The consummation of revelation waited on Paul's ministry, the Gentile apostle. When he brought out this secret, it was the last in the revelation of God, and it was the crown of all the divine purposes. Let me refer you to a little analogy: how did the work of the old creation proceed? One thing after another was created in its beauty, and man came at the last. He was put in the garden; and what was his condition there? He was at home there; but when the cattle were brought up to be named by him, he was not only at home in his own proper place, but he gets the lordship of everything before him. He was in his dominions. Was that all? There remained a thing behind, and that thing was the chiefest. He had everything before he got the woman. It was the last thing revealed, and the tip-top of his happiness. It opened his lips, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Adam was happy before, but he was not abounding. When the woman was given to him, it was the height of his joy. So we ought to be prepared for the church waiting for the ministry of Paul. I should be prepared for the last ministry bringing out the richest thing in the counsels of God.

I get the same thing in the story of Jerusalem. When Israel went into Canaan, the sword of Joshua reduced the land to their possession. So it went on in the days of the Judges; and in the days of King Saul they still remained in possession; but all that time Jerusalem was a Jebusite city; all through that season this favoured spot, this chief spot in the land — this queen, destined to fix the eye of God — was in the clutches of the Gentile; and it was not till the days of David, God's own king, that it became the chief absorbing centre of everything in the land, the sanctuary, the throne, the place where the tribes went up. It was the chiefest of everything, and it came last. Do we not get there an image of Ephesian truth? God delights Himself in analogies. What are parables but divine analogies? And so, in the very end of the book, we see the woman re-appearing as the last and chiefest. The victories have been won — the kingdom seated in dignity; the very last thing in the book is the revelation of the church coming down to show herself in her beauty. (Rev. 21) So I am prepared to listen to Paul, without charging him with arrogancy, when he says he fills out the word of God.

Again, the revelation of the church is the richest display of God in grace, glory, and wisdom. The calling of Israel was a rich display of Him. Be it so. God cannot put His hand to anything without displaying Himself thus. But when we come to listen to the mystery of the church, the body and bride of Christ, we are instructed to know that grace, in its glory, in its riches — in its exceeding riches — has been manifested, and manifested in the face of creation — in the hearing and seeing of principalities and powers in heavenly places; and there is a simplicity about all this. Does magnificence touch simplicity? It would not be simply divine if it were not unutterably glorious. If it lay deepest in the divine mind, it was most full of grace, glory, and wisdom. Principalities and powers shall hold their breath while listening to the story that the calling of the church is rehearsing.

Now, what are its titles? It is called the body and the bride; and what do they mean? The body is the expression of this — that the church is set in the highest place of dignity. As the bride she is set in the nearest place of affection. As the body of Christ, occupying the chiefest point in dignity, all that is in this world and in that which is to come will be beneath her. He will be seated above all; and the church, which is His body, is the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. As the bride she will be in the nearest place of affection. You cannot be too near to the person you love. As the bride of Christ, the church is set close to His heart. The church is destined to be to the heart of Christ what the woman was to Adam. Ephesians 5 is as the utterance of Adam over the woman. "We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," is a re-echoing of the ecstatic utterance of the first man over the first woman.

If we love a person, we love to see them in dignity and glory. There you are set in the tip-top place of dignity, and, as the bride, in the nearest place of affection. You might be surprised to hear me say that the Lord Jesus did not complete the revelation of God. When you read the four gospels, do you read them as the full picture of gospel grace? The Lord's ministry was a transitional time. Till His death was accomplished He had not the platform for the display of full gospel grace, or the instrument for forming the church. How could you form a thing without the instrument? The Spirit was not given; and the Head was not yet glorified. The opening of the book of God prepares me for the mystery, and the close of the book shuts me up to it, and seals it on my apprehension, as we now see.

But in the Epistle to the Ephesians we get not merely the church but saints individually. (Eph. 5 and Eph. 6.) We do not lose our personality. This is said to be the meaning of Ephesians 4: 12. That is an individual thing. The business of gifts is with you individually: "He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints." There is a deep intimacy and personality between me and Christ that nothing can ever touch. So the first business of gifts was with each individually, "For the perfecting of the saints." Then, let the perfected saints set themselves to the work of the ministry, and to the edifying of the body. Consequently, in Corinthians, when he had the mystery to bring out, he says, "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect." So, when we come to practical details in our chapter, we are addressed individually, "That ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk" (ver. 17), and so on; "Who being past feeling" (ver. 19), that is, a seared and hardened conscience, with no sense of their own lasciviousness. "But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus."

The introduction of the word Jesus here shows personality; and do you not love a personal lesson? Do you not delight to think that you and Christ have a business that none can interfere with? Look at John's gospel as a beautiful picture of the sinner and Christ together. We do not find the Lord in John as a social man, working with apostles. He works alone with the sinner. It is very sweet to see the Spirit refusing to lose sight of the individual. "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness." This is a much richer creation than the first. Adam was the only object in the first creation that carried an understanding; but you could not say he was created "after God, in righteousness and true holiness.

We are told to put away lying, as being members one of another. "Be ye angry, and sin not." Anger may be as holy a feeling as any other, but do not retain it so as to let it degenerate into nature. Then we are to "resist the devil," and "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour . . . that he may have to give to him that needeth." This is very beautiful. He is not merely to cease from stealing, but to become a workman for others. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth . . . and grieve not the holy Spirit of God." Our works are looked at and our words, and now our tempers.

Are you not thankful that Christianity legislates for every bit of you? But what dignity! Your lips may be employed in communicating grace to the hearers; and your thoughts, either in refreshing or grieving the Holy Spirit of God!

"Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." This is a change from "The Lord's Prayer." There you are instructed to know that God will measure Himself by you: "Forgive . . . as we forgive." Here is quite the reverse; I am to measure myself by God: "forgiving, as God hath forgiven you." This shows as we were observing before, that the Lord's ministry was a transitional thing; it had not come out into the full glory of salvation. Now a ministry has gone forth for the perfecting of us individually, and for our edification as the body of Christ.

Ephesians 5.

We have observed that the doctrinal part of the epistle closed at Ephesians 4: 16. Then from that point to Ephesians 6: 9 we get the practical part, and we get conflict in the end.

Read now chapter 5 and chapter 6 to verse 9, where we get the practical details of christian life. I should like, first, to say a little about precept.

If we consult the Epistles to the Romans and the Colossians, we shall find in them a different construction from the Philippians. There the apostle is eminently a pastor, looking at the souls of the Philippians. But in the Ephesians, Romans, Colossians, he is a teacher; therefore in them we get doctrine followed by precept. Now, why do we get precepts in the epistles? Do you always get your conduct directly from precepts? No; but by putting your mind in connection with Christ Himself, and the grace of God in your calling. So we get in Titus, "The grace of God . . . hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly"; that is, if I know the moral virtue of the grace in which I stand, I shall be taught without precepts to live soberly, righteously, and godly.

Peter tells us exactly the same thing. "Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be"; and again, "Seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent." There is no precept to be diligent, but the eye of the soul is directed to the glory and to the dissolution of all things present, and it says, What manner of persons ought we to be! So practical power derives itself from the grace of our calling.

We get the same thing in the Book of Genesis; there are no precepts there, but the patriarchs lived holy lives (through the Spirit, surely) by virtue of their calling. One is called out by "the God of glory." It is said, as on the lips of Joseph, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God." It is not that he had precepts, but he looked at God. So in your daily walk you are not commonly looking at precepts but at Christ. But why, then, the precepts? For several reasons:

First, precepts serve as tests. If a soul is backsliding, you may use them in discipline. It is very well in such a case to have a well-defined precept to guide you.

Secondly, God is dealing with living realities in His word. If doctrines tell me that God is dealing with me, precepts tell me that it is with me God is dealing. God is not revealing an indefinite light that may sparkle before me. He addresses Himself to me, a corrupt creature, and says, "Let him that stole steal no more."

Thirdly, there is this beauty in precepts they do greatly honour the doctrine; they are the expression of the hidden moral virtue that lies in the doctrine. For instance, "Grieve not the holy Spirit of God." The doctrine had already taught me that I had received the Spirit as the seal of salvation. The precept tells me that the Spirit I have received is sensitive of the least touch of unholiness. So the doctrine is glorified by the precept.

Fourthly, I will tell you further what precepts do. They show you that your holiness must be dispensational. You will say, Is not holiness holiness? No; I boldly say, it is not. We can only judge of it in the dispensed light of God. Is it unholiness now for the Jew to traffic with the Gentile? No; it is not. Yet under the law they dare not eat with them. So holiness may vary its form.

Now, suppose I were to keep a good conscience just because my conscience resented evil, and were moral because morality is comely, would that be christian morality?

No holiness is christian holiness but such as derives itself from the truth. When you come to apply that to yourself, you will find you have something to do! You will have to associate the Lord Jesus with every bit of your life. How did the elders obtain a good report? Was it a precept that worked Abraham's separation from his kindred and his father's house, and Moses' abdication of Egypt? It was God making Himself known to them. Precepts will never make a christian man. The soul must come in contact with the revelation of God.

"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us." Now, let me ask you, supposing I was a good neighbour just to keep my conscience a little easy, would that be meeting the demands of this passage? "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us"; that makes kindness christian kindness. I take the Lord Jesus as my great prototype. Does not this take morals out of the hand of Moses? This puts my morals on a new ground altogether. I am to walk in love, because Christ has loved me, and given Himself for me, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. The Lord has not only presented you in all the value of His blood, but in the sweet savour of His sacrifice. Is it accepted in the righteous one you are? No; but "accepted in the beloved." The high priest, when he took the blood into the holiest, went in enveloped in a balmy, savoury cloud of incense. Was it a grudging acceptance that waited on the sacrifice of Christ? No; it was a delightful acceptance; and you are in all the value of that acceptance. Well, then, could I give the atmosphere in which I am set before God one glance of faith and come back to indulge my enmities?

You know your renewed conscience would never be satisfied by merely doing what is right. You must have the springs of action purified. It is what Christ has done that asks it from you. These uncleannesses, as I read in verse 3, do not become saints. Am I to lay aside uncleanness because it is uncleanness? No; but because it does not become saints. So it goes on: "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." I refuse participation in uncleanness, because I was in darkness, but now I am transformed. I am a new creature, a child of light.

And I pause here again to ask you, Would you qualify this beautiful intensity? Do you want to leave Christ when you come to the practical details of life? We never leave Christ.

So, when we come to meditate on conflict, we are just as much in His company as in the details of life, or as up in heaven in the early part of the epistle. There is something sublime in this. If a doctrine comes to unfold God to me, a precept comes to show me the moral virtue that lies hid in it. The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, as in the benevolent virtues — righteousness, as in integrity and honesty, and all connected with truth. We find goodness and righteousness in the world, but we shall not find them connected with truth, save in the household of faith. These things are given to make us practically Christ. As an old writer says, "Christ Himself is the ground of all laws to a Christian", one loathes cultivation of soul by anything short of Christ. Christ would have us sober, truthful, honest.

Now are ye light; and what quality of light? Light "in the Lord." You have not kindled the spark that is in you from Moses, but from the Lord of light. You have borrowed a ray from Him, and you are to walk in it, proving what is acceptable to Jesus. I am sure after this we shall not ask why the precepts of the New Testament, when we see the blessed Lord connected with each bit of the details, the Spirit bringing down my Lord Jesus to be the sanction of my ways.

You will often find here that the Spirit is not satisfied with mere abnegation of evil. He insists on the cultivation of good. "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good." There is the negative in company with the positive. The evil is denied, and the good is brought in. So here, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them"; because you have put off the old man. But are you merely an emptied, stripped thing? No; you have put on the new man. As the old man would have made plunder of what belonged to another, so now you are to work for him whom before you would have plundered. Moses never set me to that work; will Christ measure Himself by Moses? Will He measure Himself by anything but Himself? There is such dignity in this. We should keep morals up in their own elevation. Moses would drag them down; I do not say this when we get Moses passed through the filter of Christ, as in the Sermon on the Mount. Would Moses have required you to lay down your life for another? Christ does, because Christ has done it. "Wherefore it saith" (I would rather have it in ver. 14), it is the voice and language of Light. The light that is now shining is the light of Christ. So "Christ shall give thee light"; a peculiar moral light has risen now.

"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time." Now, how is understanding to exercise itself? In the philosophy of the schools? I am to have an understanding of the will of the Lord. He keeps you, again I say, as a heavenly creature in company with Christ; as a man walking across the face of the earth, He keeps you equally with Christ. When He sends you into the field of battle He arrays you in Christ, He puts Christ upon you. Who but the Spirit could come down into the traffic of such a world and keep Christ in your company through it all! So the old man might get drunk with wine. The new man has the Spirit to fill himself with. If that is to be mortified, this is to be cultivated.

And how will this filling with the Spirit express itself? "In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." There is a vessel filled with the Spirit. It is the very same vessel, only transmuted. It was once filled with wine; now, in a spirit of thanksgiving, it is bubbling up with melody to the Lord. We have been in a fervent, heated atmosphere, heated by the Holy Ghost; and now we are suddenly let down, with a beautiful calmness, into the ordinary virtue of taking a low place. There is a beauty in the very style of this. How can we be sufficiently charmed with it! We do not know which to admire most, the doctrinal or the practical part.

Having come down to that, He details it, and addresses husbands and wives. There, I need not say, how deeply we are in company with Christ. Do not a wife and husband get their sanctions from Christ? Many a good wife never thinks of the Lord Jesus. Is that a christian wife?

Here let me turn aside to note a title that occurs three times in this epistle. Christ is called "The Head" in chapters 1, 4 and 5; but in each place the Headship has a different aspect.

In Ephesians 1 it is as the Head of the body. He is Head over all things to the church, the principal feature of the mystic man.

In Ephesians 4 it is as being Head of influence, dispensing virtue to the 'members. "From whom the whole body fitly joined together . . . maketh increase of the body."

Here in Ephesians 5 we see Him in another aspect, as the Head of authority, "The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." In verse 32 it ought to be, "This is the great mystery." Then, having addressed wives by the common duties that belong to them, in Ephesians 6 it is the same thing with children. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right." Even in the time of Moses this was an honourable duty. But here it is because it is right in the view of the Lord. This takes it out from the legal promise, and the Lord becomes the new sanction.

So with fathers. A father ought to be his child's christian servant. I mean, that he should every hour be watching that the nurture and admonition of the Lord be ministered to his child. He should minister Christ to him.

As to servants — beautiful this is! — they are to be obedient. It matters not the character of their master. They are to be doing service, "as unto the Lord." Did you ever get up to that verse in James (James 1: 9), when you see people maintaining station in this life, that you ought positively to rejoice in anticipation of these distinctions passing away? Not touching the thing in passing along, 1 Timothy 6 would tell me that; but it ought to be the hidden joy of the heart that by-and-by station will have passed away with the fashion of this world.

Then as to masters. Do not be guilty of threatening. The lordly ways of masters and mistresses are hateful. How does your Master in heaven treat you?

Here the practical part ends; but I ask Does it not dignify you? As George Herbert says, "Who sweeps a room, if for Thy laws, makes that, and the action fine." It is the same thing to Christ if you are up there in His company. It is the same Jesus who is enfolding, embracing, enriching you in every step of the journey, and that for His own eternity.

Ephesians 6.

We have observed that this epistle naturally distributes itself into three parts — doctrinal and practical; and here, from verse 10 to the end, we get a scene of conflict. Teaching, walk, and conflict.

The teaching, we remember, was the education of the church — the body of Christ; and we were observing that there was heavenly calling before there was church calling. We have constant proof all along the line of Old Testament days of heavenly calling, but we have only distant, shadowy intimations of the body of Christ. As has been said by another, "It would have sounded absurd in the ears of a Jew to talk in divine, mysterious language of giving Messiah a body, completing Him, filling Him out." It is not said of Abraham that he was blessed in heavenly places in Christ, incorporated in Christ. This is the grand teaching of this highest of all the epistles.

Then, leaving the doctrinal part, we enter on the practical, which goes on to verse 9 of this chapter; and I should like to repeat what we were observing. When we come to the practical part of the epistle, we get the doctrinal part gloriously honoured. Precepts become, in the hands of the Spirit, the expression of the moral virtue that lies in the doctrine. If I had my heart open to God, I should be guided by the intrinsic virtue of my calling; and, oh, if we have common spiritual taste, we must enjoy that! Is it not beautiful to see the doctrine and precepts thus in company? In the same way Peter stands before the doctrine and wonders that we should not prove the moral virtue of it, and so do I.

Then, in the next place, it gives precepts a dispensational character. God is not dwelling in the same light now as when He was sitting on the throne in Jerusalem. That was an earthly light, a light that shone on earth. The light in which God now dwells is the awful yet most precious mystery, that He has been rejected here in His dear Son, and that that Son is now glorified in heaven. And you must be in the light where God dwells. You must make God's dispensational truth the rule of your ways. I speak not, of course, of the light in which God dwells, as in His own proper glory — as we read in 1 Timothy 6: 16.

Now, the difference between Ephesians 5 and Ephesians 6 is this: in chapter 5 we see the saint taking his walk in the midst of the circumstances of human life. Here we see the saint in the field of battle. Do you believe your conflict is as constant as your walk? Are you to be in conflict today and in conflict again tomorrow. There is plenty of work for us to do; our hands will be full enough if we are practical living saints of God.

Now, in opening this third view, he tells us to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might, taking to us the whole armour of God, that we may withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. The Spirit contemplates that it is a war from beginning to end. There may be certain battles; but, having done with the specific fight, you must still stand as in a war! Are you prepared for finding human life a war? That is what this passage is pregnant with. Whether the specific fighting be present or not, your whole soul is to rest in the conclusion that it is incessant war till you have done with this world, this flesh., and the devil. If two nations are at war, they may not be fighting every day, a battle may be a rare thing, but war has been proclaimed. The Lord forbid that you and I should not know that as long as we are in the body we are in a field of battle.

"The evil day" is a specific battle. If we have won the victory, why are we still to stand? Because war has been proclaimed. Have you proclaimed war with the lusts that are in your members, and the spirit of the world around you? Your soul is to recognise that, while you are in the body, you are a fighting man. That being your position, you are to put on the whole armour of God, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Now, how do you understand this? Do you rest in the thought that wicked spirits are in heavenly places? It is abundantly taught us. In 2 Chronicles 18 the Lord says, "Who shall entice Ahab king of Israel?" "I will entice him," says a spirit; "I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets." This is a fruitful lively expression of the thing that is taken up in Ephesians 6.

It is beautiful to see the Spirit so at home in His own scriptures. He takes it up as a settled thing that Satan is in heaven. He does not make a difficulty, or a question about it. He assumes it as a thing sealed and accredited, and so takes it up. What does the Lord say? "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." This was not a mere honorary expression. Then in Revelation 12 Satan is cast down from heaven. Satan and the principalities and powers are now in heavenly places.

But what do these wicked spirits do? They come down with all their wiles and lies and deceivings to practise them in your heart and mine; as in Micaiah's vision, the lying spirit came down with a wile to Ahab; and again, as Satan tempts David to number the people. The Old and New Testaments are pregnant with all this. Paul says, "We are not ignorant of his devices"; and again, "O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil." All these prove that he acts by wiles. He acts by violence, and by persecution also, but that is not contemplated here. If we go over the story of Satan in scripture, we shall find him an accuser. Was he not an accuser of the brethren in the Book of Job? And is not the very same character attached to him in the Book of the Apocalypse?

Thus we now find ourselves put in the presence of the enemy. I am in the war, and I can never get out of it, though I may get out of the evil day. What then am I to do? I am to take the whole armour of God.

And now I just ask you to inspect each part of this armour. Is there one single piece of that which is declared to be the armour of God fitted to send you out into the field of battle with flesh and blood? Is that the way He armed Joshua and David? They were to meet flesh and blood; and they were carnal weapons which He put into their hands. Now there is not a touch of that here. There are no slings and stones and jaw-bones of asses; and this is declared to be the whole armour of God. If this is not the armour I have on me, I am not fighting for Christ. Saints may take carnal weapons; but if I do — if, for instance, I go into a court of justice to assert my rights — do not let me talk of being in the light of God. That is where dispensational truth is so important. I find here that the Spirit sends me into a field of battle, and I find that my security depends on truth, righteousness, faith, peace, and the sword of the Spirit.

Now, supposing we were to describe a few of these wiles. Infidel heresies, superstitious vanities, evil doctrines, false expectations about the history of the world. We are not here in company with our lusts, but in conflict with direct attempts of the enemy. We must withstand the temptations of our hearts in walking through the world, as in Ephesians 5. Here we are set face to face with Satan, the deceivableness of unrighteousness, doctrinal heresies; these are the things we are to withstand. And is it not perfectly right that, being delivered by the Seed of the woman, we should make our war with him who was our captor? How could you attach yourself to Jesus, and not turn round in the face of the enemy and let him know that you are at war with him?

Having passed this fervent scene, we find that, having this armour on us, if a quickened condition of soul be not maintained in communion, the armour will be cumbrous, "Praying always . . . and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds." Did you ever hear of such a thing as the ambassador of one nation being put in bonds by the nation to which he was sent? Why, God has fared worse in this world than any nation in it would., and pray, what message did this ambassador bring? A message of boundless grace. And that is the way He has been treated. The law of nations would not allow it for an instant. Yet that is the way God for eighteen hundred years, in the Person of His servants and witnesses, has consented to be treated.

Then he tells them that he sends Tychicus, "That he might comfort your hearts." Oh, if we could be in that way! — in prison, yet able to comfort others. As dear Saunders, a clergyman in the Bishop of London's coal-hole, sent to his wife, "Be merry, dear wife, be merry; we're all merry here. We weep with Him now, but we shall laugh with Him for ever." That is equal to Paul, sending from a prison in Rome a cheering word to his brethren at Ephesus. What cannot the Spirit of God work?

The Lord grant that we may be taught by the doctrine, instructed in morals, and put in something of strength for the battle by this closing scene. AMEN.

Exodus

Exodus.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 7 p. 241.

This book, like others in the Old Testament history, differs from Genesis, in that it has one or more leading topics, instead of giving the comprehensive circle which has been shown to be characteristic of that which so fittingly opens the revelations of God. It is the account of God's deliverance of His people, who are first seen under the dealings of grace, then voluntarily put under law, and lastly under His government with provisions of mercy and mediation.

Exodus 1 shows us Israel multiplied in the strange land but persecuted, yet kept of God; Exodus 2, the deliverer is born, providentially saved, brought up by Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather the reproach of Christ, escaping to Midian till God hearkens to the groans of afflicted Israel. In Exodus 3 Moses sees Him that dwelt in the bush, and is sent to Pharoah, not without signs (Ex. 4) for the people, nor without the token of the mortification of the flesh of his son by her hand who had hindered it. In Exodus 5 we see how God's summons and testimony increase the trial of His people at first; but (Ex. 6.) His name Jehovah is revealed. The I AM, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is the unchanging God of Israel, who will make good in government what He promised in grace, however He may delay during the process of putting the people to the test. In Exodus 7 we see wonders begun to be wrought in the land of Ham; but the magicians imitate the plagues till that of lice extorted from them the confession of God's finger. (Ex. 8.) The judgments fall more heavily in Exodus 9, 10 till Moses in Exodus 11 threatens the death of the firstborn, which accordingly comes in Exodus 12 with the institutes of the Passover for Israel, which is commanded in Exodus 13 as a memorial, whilst the people go forth with a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. Then Exodus 14 describes the passage of the Red Sea — death and resurrection, as Exodus 12 gave us the sprinkled blood of the Lamb. Exodus 15 is the song of Moses grounded on redemption accomplished in type. Then follows the experience of the wilderness, but of grace there. The manna comes down from heaven, type of the incarnate Word, bringing in rest (the Sabbath) for the people; then follows the smitten rock with its flowing waters (the Spirit given), conflict with Amalek, and the power of intercession. Exodus 18 completes the series with a picture of the kingdom in order and righteous rule the Gentile joining the elders of Israel in sacrifice and eating bread before God.

Exodus 19 is the transition from grace to law, under which the people — forgetful of the promises, heedless of God's ways up to this point, and ignorant of themselves — put themselves. Exodus 20 gives the ten words, followed thence to Exodus 23 by laws and regulations for Israel, who (in Ex. 24.) are sprinkled with blood, as is the book of the law, as the sign and sanction of their legal obligations under penalty of death. Then are found the patterns of things heavenly and earthly in the vessels of the sanctuary and of its court, as well as the tabernacle itself, in Exodus 25 - 31. The call to consecrate the priests intervenes in Exodus 28, 29 which separates part of these types displaying God to man from the latter portion which concerns man's access to God, and therefore properly follows the priestly institution.

Exodus 32 describes the ruin of the people through idolatry; the high priest led away by their wickedness instead of standing in the gap; the tables of stone broken by the indignant lawgiver, who executes vengeance for God on the people, but intercedes for them with God. Nevertheless Moses enjoys unexampled familiarity with God, who shows to the mediator of Israel, not His face (Ex. 33) but His passing by in goodness, as the terms of a covenant of mingled law and grace, so as to dwell in their midst while leading them into the place destined for His people. (Ex. 34.)

Exodus 35 - 40, after bringing in the sabbath again, show us the liberality of the people, the fitted workmen, the tabernacle and its furniture made, reared, and anointed, with the cloud covering and the glory of Jehovah filling it.

On Christian Experience

On Christian Experience.

J.G. Bellett.

Pub: Cameron, Edinburgh.

CBA4441

I believe that there should be much more of simple Divine experience in our souls than there is. Some have been rather turned from this by certain abused methods of speaking on Christian experience, arising, I judge, from misapprehension on the subject. "Come, ye that fear God, and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul." I might take that passage as expressive of what I understand by experience - it is what God has done for our souls.

Experiences are the sensible fruits of the Spirit's presence in us, leading us into communion. But conflicts have been confounded with experience. This has obscured the subject, I believe. Conflicts are the results of the renewed mind meeting the old lusts — meeting them in any form, whether as occurring to bring in bondage and fear, or as tempting to stir up sin, and thus to blot the conscience. Romans 7 may be read as a place of conflict, but experiences are not conflicts. Experiences are the results of the blessed operation and grace of the Holy Ghost upon the renewed mind: awakening its hopes — strengthening its faith — enlarging its understanding, or helping its intercessions. Romans 8 may be read as a place of experience. This is the difference, I judge, between these two chapters; and, accordingly, the Holy Ghost is not named as in action in the 7th of Romans, but the parties there are, as I have observed, the renewed conscience (of course, I know the fruit of the Spirit) and the lusts. The one meeting the other, conflict as the result is raised between them.

But when we meditate on the character of that Spirit who dwells in us, the forms in which He is revealed as acting in our souls, we may then see how much more rich our experiences should be than they are. He is the blessed living power within, giving efficacy to what we have in Christ, if not hindered. God is said to have sealed us with the Holy Ghost. He has in that way, and by that gift, appropriated us individually to Himself. But this seal has a large and a glorious character on it, the impressions of which we should know, and that is our experience. This Seal or Spirit thus given to us is an unction (1 John 2.) As such, He is the power and light of all knowledge in us in the mystery of Christ (Col. 2.) But the Spirit as the unction is in us, to give those materials their real and due power, that they may not lie as cold inert masses in the mere understanding, but affect us as they should, being so Divine and glorious. This Spirit is also a witness (1 John 5.) As such He is the assurance, and rest, and liberty of faith in us. We have the grounds or materials of the full assurance of faith in the person and work of Christ (Heb. 10); but the Holy Ghost is in us as the witness, to give those materials their power, so that our souls may indeed enjoy the rest and liberty, and the blessed stability of heart with which such strong ground of confidence in God should fill us. This Spirit is also an earnest (Eph. 1.) As such He is in us the joy of hope.

We have in our Jesus all that can animate hope and draw forth the longings and boundings of the soul towards the future glories — promise and revelation largely furnishing this. But the Holy Ghost is in us as an earnest, to give these promises and revelations their due attractions, so that they may not merely be looked at, or understood, but may lead the heart to gladness, or other affections worthy of the hope of such inheritance. Now, if the Holy Ghost be in us in such characters as these, what rich experiences in our souls might we not reckon upon — what strength of faith when the witness is in us! — what joy of hope when the earnest is in us! — what light and largeness of knowledge when the unction is in us! No doubt there is another kingdom, the power of which sadly hinders and defiles; but still this kingdom of God, and the presence of the Spirit in such form of life and power is ALSO A REALITY, and we may count on great things; but it is but little that we either know in ourselves or generally see in others. We want the more due culture of this new kingdom, which is "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." We want the power to watch and pray — the power to let the fire kindle by meditation — the power of simply believing all the rich and glorious things that are spoken, and the power to refuse the risings of that rival and other kingdom in us, which is ever watchful of its own interests.

I have observed before on the difference between conflict and experience. It is, I judge, well to note this: Conflict arises from the renewed mind dealing with, or getting into collision with the lusts of the old nature, and the power of the enemy. Experience arises from the renewed mind dwelling in its proper element, and dealing with the truth or the precious things of Christ in the power of the Holy Ghost who dwells there. Conflict comes from this mind being dragged downward, and out of its due place. Experience comes from its being drawn upwards, towards its own proper place; and these two chapters to which I referred — Rom. 7, 8 — give us the Divine, though different provision for these two conditions. "O wretched man that I am," cries out the renewed or quickened soul under pressure of conflict, "who shall deliver me from the body of this death." The relief comes through Jesus: "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

In its communion, or experiences, the same renewed or quickened soul is conscious of "Infirmities" — it knows not how or what to pray for as it ought. The relief comes through the Spirit: "The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with groanings that cannot be uttered, and He that searcheth the heart, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints, according to the will of God." This is Divine teaching of the greatest comfort. Jesus ends the conflict — The Holy Ghost perfects the communion of the poor saint; and in this 8th of Romans I must suggest one other thing: it shows us the Holy Spirit's presence and grace with the saint in two respects. First, When the saint is strong, being in that communion which the dispensation calls us to, and is crying, "Abba Father," then the Spirit joins in this, and by His testimony. Second, When the saint is weak, unable to conduct the communion in full intelligence or power, not knowing what to pray for as he ought, then the Spirit helps the infirmity, and puts His perfect communication with the mind of God in the place of our imperfect communion. (See Rom. 5: 16, 26.) This is the twofold office of the gracious Spirit noticed here, so that whether we be strong or weak, He is for the saint, warranting our confidence — helping our weakness.

O for simple faith to know and enjoy His love.  J. G. B.

An Extract

An Extract.

J G Bellett

Christian Friend  Vol. 3. p. 186.

I have just been reading again that lovely fourth chapter of John. What a little heaven it is to sit in spirit there, and be in company with Him that is the eternal life, in full grace dispensing Himself to one of the degraded captives of pollution and death!

The satisfying water springs from that grace in the Son of God which reaches and quiets the conscience; and it was such that Jesus here dispenses to her. Till our need as sinners is met and answered, we must be thirsting again, let us get what we may, because the soul is not at rest with God. But Jesus came to repair the breach in the conscience-to give rest before God, and in God, and thus to impart the satisfying water of life through the Holy Ghost.

And when this is done, in a great divine sense, the end is reached — God is glorified — the sinner made happy, and entrance into the places of glory becomes a necessary result.

This end is beautifully shown in this same exquisite and marvellous chapter; for the woman goes away with a spirit in deep refreshment because of conscious acceptance and life, and the Son of God Himself is so satisfied in the fruit of His own way, that He has had that which sets Him above the thirst He had been feeling and the food He had wanted. 'I have meat to eat that ye know not of.' It was as manna to Him. What a thought! the Son of God comes down to our degraded earth to find His manna, His strange mysterious food and satisfaction of heart — bread which He could never have known in heaven — a joy that He could never have tasted amid the glories of His unfallen creatures. But here, on earth, among sinners, He finds, in the dispensing of the Father's grace, the deepest and fullest answer of all the longings of His divine love.

When a sinner is happy in Him, His end is reached, and so is ours, and all that remains is to spend eternity in the glory that becomes such an end as this-His joy in us, and ours in Him."

"In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 1 Thess. 5: 18.

"In everything give thanks."

My God, is this Thy will?

Give thanks for disappointments given,

For prayers unanswer'd still?

Give thanks! In vain I've pray'd

That I might useful be,

And by Thy Spirit's helpful aid,

Bring many souls to Thee.

Give thanks! when in the place

Of health and usefulness,

Through sickness, Thou hast paled my face

With pain and weariness.

Give thanks! If 'twere Thy will

Submission to demand,

I then might bid myself be still,

And bow to Thy command.

But hush, beneath my eye

I see, in words of blood,

"Will He who gave His Son to die,

Refuse thee any good?"

Give thanks! Yea, Lord, I do,

And by Thy help I will,

Give thanks for blessings not received,

Although expected still.

Give thanks for mercies given,

Unnoticed oft by me;

Give thanks for sins forgiven,

Known only, Lord, to Thee.

Give thanks in word and deed,

For Thy surpassing love,

That sent Thy Son on earth to save,

And now to plead above.

Give thanks for tender love,

That our Redeemer show'd,

Who, in the absence of Himself,

A Comforter bestow'd.

Oh grant me by Thy grace

To walk by faith alone,

Until before my Father's face,

I know as I am known!

J. G. B.

Extract from a Letter

Extract from a Letter.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 18, 1891, p. 190.

Souls, dear -, are enabled to make so short a journey in these days. It used to be an age to pass from death unto life, but now 'tis a journey accomplished in haste. And really this is more according to the New Testament model. Zaccheus and the thief, the Samaritan and Peter and Matthew, took but little time to travel that road. But it is comforting, however, to see other cases, souls finding their way more gradually step by step. The spirit of Nathaniel may have been under the shade of the fig-tree for years; we cannot say. Lydia may have been in "the place where prayer was wont to be made" for years; we cannot say. Cornelius may have had his feasts and his religious services and his legal fears about his soul and his gracious almsgiving for years; we cannot say. But we do see the slow-heartedness and creeping progress of Nicodemus. And yet he has surely reached Jesus at the end, and all the time was on the road, as they did who took a short cut as it were across the fields.

There was conviction and uneasiness in his soul I believe when he first came to the Lord. It was not a commanding affection I grant you. Had it been so it would have shaped his approach to Jesus very differently from what we find it was. And he left Him much perhaps as he came, only as one who had heard things to startle him, and give him such musings that either he must entertain them or have no more to say to Jesus. (John 3.) And I believe he did entertain them. He continued uneasy, and did not stifle conviction, so that on the next occasion he pleads for righteousness, and is so far an advocate of the Lord. (John 7.)

But this is slow work, and this slowness is not to his honour. The fear of man was still over him. The affections that drew him to the Lord were not commanding yet. Had they been so, he would not have been standing for Him in the council of enemies, but he would have joined himself with His disciples. Indeed we never find him in their company; a bad sign. Cords and bands must be weak that do not draw that way. Still the thing is real with him, and he who once stole by night to the Lord, now stands up for His rights, as one accused, in the face of his enemies.

There is, however, a difference between an advocate and a disciple of Christianity. I may eloquently plead for truth, or learnedly write for it, and yet be personally a stranger to it. Nicodemus had not yet learned Christ as sinners learn a Saviour. But does he not come to this at last? He reaches the cross. Surely a good symptom. Surely the best place he could be in. I can scarcely say when I see him there, and the very apostles themselves fled and gone, that the last shall be first. I know not that I can say that — that now the timid Joseph, and the slow-hearted Nicodemus, are before and beyond the earnest Peter and the loving John. I know not, again I say, that I can say that. But Joseph and Nicodemus are in the best place on the face of the whole earth at that moment. There was not a single act that could have been performed by faith, more in season with that moment, than the taking down the body from the cross. It was owning the crucified One in the face of the world, and fulfilling, though they may not have known it, the words of the prophet, "With the rich in His death."

The place too is the place where the sinner properly first meets his Saviour. He looks to Him whom his sins had pierced. He is now a sinner looking to be saved, and not a pupil looking to be taught, as at first, and he has new thoughts of Jesus now. He could not now have said, "We know thou art a Teacher come from God," true as that is; he must reach Him as a Saviour ere he can learn of Him as a Teacher.

Does he not make the journey from darkness to light, from death unto life? Surely he does, slow-paced traveller as he was. Ah! there is comfort in tracking the path of such an one amid the brilliant footprints of the Samaritan, and of the adulteress, of Andrew and Philip, and the blind beggar. J. G. B.

A Fair Show in the Flesh

A Fair Show in the Flesh.

Galatians 6: 12.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

"The truth," or the doctrine of the Son, as the Lord Himself teaches us (John 8: 32-36), sets free all those who receive it. It is the "law of liberty" (James 1, 2); it is "mercy rejoicing over judgment;" for judgment has been duly and fully marked against us as guilty, but through the blood of sprinkling mercy is secured, and by the gospel that mercy is published; so that the truth — the doctrine of the Son, the gospel, or the law of liberty, which are all titles of the same revelation of God — sets the sinner free. In this precious liberty is included freedom from sin, from the law, and from the flesh. This is the excellent and wondrous teaching of Romans 6, 7, 8. Sin had been a master. But the believer in Jesus is dead in Jesus; and death being the end or wages of sin, sin is gone. "He that is dead is freed (justified) from sin." Sin has no claim on him. He is no longer to be its servant; for by death the entire connection between him and sin is dissolved. So is the believer freed from the law; for the law addresses itself only to living man. It is the husband only of such, by its energies working on the flesh. But the believer being not a living, but a dead and risen, man — a man in union with the dead and risen Christ — the law is of necessity discharged as an old husband, and the believer is acted upon by the virtues of the risen Christ, the new husband.* So also is the believer out of the flesh. The flesh is the living man, man in his nature, as derived from corrupted Adam. But the believer is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, and the Spirit of God dwells in him. (Rom. 8) He is in the new man, in the second Adam; he is in Christ, and being one with Him, he is spirit — for he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. (1 Cor. 6: 17.)

*The law, being good, has not been discharged in the way that sin has. It has been discharged as a husband only — as that to which the soul was debtor, and with which it was in union, before the sinner became a dead and risen man. Its holy and good words, as being expressive of God, are still delighted in and allowed.

These are the three blessed characteristics of the believer's liberty, as we are taught in these three glorious chapters. This is the standing of the "man, in Christ." The truth has made him free, the Son has made him free; and this has been accomplished by taking him out of himself, and planting him, through faith, in the dead and risen Christ of God. Sin has no claim to his service, as a lord; the law has no power over him, as a husband; nor is the flesh the condition in which he is.

But this doctrine, which is Christianity, does not suit the, legal, fleshly mind of man. Above all the difficulty which St. Paul had to meet in his care of the churches, that which arose from our disposedness to return to the law, or to "confidence in the flesh," was the most frequent and the greatest.

In Galatia he found this abundantly. The churches there had been eminent for attachment to him, because of the gospel which preached. They had received him as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus, and would have plucked out their eyes for him. They had been in a particularly blessed state of soul; they had begun in the "Spirit," in the doctrine of faith; and this devotedness of heart to the apostle who had brought them that doctrine, was the fruit of it. But they had been "bewitched." They had been drawn back from their place in Christ, and were in bondage again. Instead of being dead to the old husband, they had re-embraced him, and were deriving influence out of him once more. Not that they had formally renounced Christ, as Jews or Pagans. They still professed Christ, but together with Him, they were insisting on, and trusting in, "days, and months, and times, and years." They were teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. They were re-enacting ordinances; they were turning again to beggarly elements. A life of simple faith in the Son of God, as the one who had loved them and given Himself for them, was defiled; and they were living to the law, putting themselves under observances, as under so many tutors and governors. They were servants and not sons — in bondage, and not in liberty; they had gone back to the school-master, which they could not do without leaving the Father's house.

All this must have been connected with an increasing show of religion among them. This necessarily was the case; for "days and months" were so increasingly observed, the bonds of the law and of carnal ordinances were so multiplied, that to an eye not instructed by the Spirit, they must have had a great "name to live." But Paul speaks of all this as "leaven" threatening to corrupt the whole mass. In his view it was the symptom of death, and not of life. "A fair show" it was; but it was a fair show "in the flesh." Thus, under his eye, it was the garnishing of a sepulchre, and his energy is employed in re-quickening them. He travails in birth again with them, if haply they might be raised out of this sepulchre, or place of death, and brought forth, as Isaac from Sarah's dead womb, by the precious ministry of the truth — that is, the doctrine of the Son taught by the Spirit.

This epistle is a word of solemn admonition. It shows us that the most promising may be beguiled, go that all have to watch. We may have the blessed assurance of our holy keeping; but we none of us keep the book of life. Therefore we can only say of one another, "if ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled." And this epistle shows that we may be disappointed even in the most promising — in a Galatian — disciple; but it also shows us that the Spirit of God is alive, most sensitively alive, to the least infraction of the truth, or "the law of liberty." He speaks of it as He speaks of some of the foulest moral stains that could defile the garments of the saints: both are the leaven that leavens the whole lump (1 Cor. 5: 6; Gal. 5: 9).

But it is to be observed still further, as to the nature of this leaven that was working in Galatia, that it was not the revival of a hope, under what is termed the moral law of the ten commandments, as though by strict moral obedience, a righteousness could be produced. This was not the gross thought of the disciples there; but they were returning to observances and ordinances. It was a more refined and religious confidence in the flesh, but still it was confidence in the flesh. They had begun in the Spirit, with Christ's sufficiency; but now they were looking for perfection from and in the flesh. It was a departure from the liberty in which Christ, by His death and resurrection, had put them; and the apostle clearly treats them as a people whose condition made him to stand in doubt of them, and to feel towards them as though he must begin his toil among them afresh, and travail in birth again till Christ be formed in them, till all fleshly confidence should depart from their hearts, and Christ and His liberty — Christ and the virtue of His death and resurrection, Christ and His completeness for the poor sinner — be welcomed, and received there alone.

All at Galatia was as death while the flesh, and its observances, and its righteousness, were thus confided in. A sepulchre it was, garnished by much religious drapery; but the apostle was not to be deceived by such fair show; he lays it bare; he takes off the trappings to exhibit the corruption that was under them: for it was the flesh that was under them, and the flesh is a dead thing. They might ornament the flesh, but it is all uncleanness; and deck it out as we may, it is the flesh still, in which there dwelleth "no good thing." The days, the months, and times, and years, religiously enforced as they were, and fitted to give their votaries a name to live with those who judge after the flesh, were but a painted sepulchre to the eye of St. Paul.

Indeed God is not truly known where such things are trusted. If the living, blessed God be really before the soul, He is known as one who quickens the dead; but confidence in the flesh, such as existed among the Galatians, gives up God. Thus the apostle has to say, "howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service to them which by nature are no gods; but now after that ye have known God (or rather are known of God), how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, wherein ye desire again to be in bondage?" For, indeed, as we may infer from what he says in Gal. 2: 19, the only way to be alive to God is to be dead to the law. Truly blessed this is. As long as the soul is alive to the law — as long as it derives the motions and sanctions which influence it from the law, it is dead to God. For self is its end and object: to take care of one's self, of one's own interest and safety is its purpose. God is not lived for; His glory and service are not the aim of the soul; that cannot be because the law is set up, and the law puts us upon caring for ourselves — upon the anxious, uneasy, servile question of our own interest and safety. This is shown in the person of the unprofitable servant. He was under the law. All that he cared about was to come off well in the day of reckoning. He treated the Lord as an austere man who must be satisfied. He feared him, not having learned that way of "perfect love" which is His, and which casts our fear; and thus he was alive to the law, but dead to God. Paul, however, stood in another mind. "I," he says, "through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God." But from this life the Galatians had now been "bewitched." They had begun it, but they were now deserting it, and no time was to be lost, if haply the apostle might now call them back to Christ, or to that "faith" which works by love, setting the heart and conscience at liberty before God, so that He may be loved. They had to be taught again that nothing availed but "a new creature" (Gal. 6); that before God the flesh is gone, sin judged, and the law taken out of the way; that the old master of Rom. 6 is no longer in power, and that we are become dead to the old husband of Rom. 7; but that by faith in a dead and risen Christ, we have escaped from these bonds and penalties, to find our liberty in the fulness of Christ.

But if the standing in the "righteousness by faith be given up, and "confidence in the flesh" be adopted, then there is both a fall from grace, and debtorship to do the whole law (Gal. 5: 1-5). Christ will not share the confidence of our souls with the law. He is a jealous husband, even as God is a jealous God. And we may bless Him that He is; we may bless Him that He will have us as a chaste virgin, with mind kept uncorrupted in His simplicity. If we return to the law, whether ceremonial or moral, we are debtors to the whole of it. We are to glory in the cross of Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto us, and we unto the world (Gal. 6: 14). We are not, by subjection to ordinances, to manifest that we are still living in the world (Col. 2: 20). The cross has met, everything for us. It has honoured the rights and demands of God. It has answered and silenced the malice of the enemy. And in spirit we have been carried on high, in and with Jesus, beyond the voice of the law; for that spoke for God on earth and we are above the earth, in the heavens, with the ascended Christ (Eph. 2: 6). This being so, we are called to leave the world, and all thoughts of sanctification in the flesh, remembering that it is with nothing else than with the "increase of God" that we are nourished (Col. 2: 19). What words! but not too great; for our life is hid in God, and therefore partakes of its proper, divine nourishment. It is not we that live, but Christ that lives in us. All this truth was so precious to Paul, that the teaching of those who were reviving the law, or bondage to ordinances, was especially his sorrow; and as such had leavened the churches in Galatia more than any other, his most aggrieved letter is to them. It was the jealous care of the apostle to keep the doctrines of unsullied Christianity in full purity, and to spread the savour of them through the hearts of the elect. And this doctrine of Christ tells us that man is utterly worthless — that he has been touched again and again by the finger of God, and been found to be an instrument entirely out of tune, having no music for Him at all. Man is, accordingly, in the boundlessness of divine grace, laid aside, and Christ is taken up, risen from the dead, as the head of a new creation. Believers are God's workmanship in Christ Jesus. Christ is formed in them. They are born of God, and His seed remains in them — that incorruptible seed of the word of the gospel. They are a new creation, of which Christ is both the head and the character. He is in them, and they are in Him. It is not they who live, but Christ liveth in them. They are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, as has been before said, but to write again these precious truths is safe and pleasant. The believer is in Christ, and not in himself, and thus he has done with condemnation as much as Christ has. Christ was once condemned; He died unto sin once; but now He dieth no more, death has no more dominion over Him. And so with the believer who is in Him: "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus."

All this is for the effectual relief of the conscience, to give it perfect rest. But in the doctrine of Christ there is much more. It may be expressed thus, in mind, body, and ESTATE, believers are one with Jesus. How divine the love that could take such a counsel! The poor soul that believes is one with Christ in spirit now, and is to be one with Him in body and in inheritance by and bye. He that is joined to the Lord is already "one spirit" with Him; and the present vile body is to be hereafter changed into the likeness of "his glorious body;" and further still, we are "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ;" for in Him and with Him we have obtained an inheritance. Thus are believers "conformed to the image of the Son." In mind, body, and estate they are one with Him. Great features of the precious mystery of Christ these are; and, shall I say, still more marvellous is it, that the same love which rests on the Son rests on them (John 17: 23).

Thoughts quite beyond any but the mind of the Spirit open to us in all this. But while tracing the mystic oneness of Christ, we are to remember the teaching of Scripture, that Jesus is the Sanctifier, and believers but the sanctified (Heb. 2). And this shows that notwithstanding the existence of this oneness, yet the proper personal distance between Him and us originally was as great as light from darkness, as heaven from hell, as God Himself from sin. And we are also to remember that by His blood alone are we called into this condition. The blood is our only title, though the things to which it entitles us are thus immeasurable. Now all this glorious mystery is soiled and clouded by those who taught circumcision or the law of commandments contained in ordinances. No wonder, then, that our apostle so withstood them; for such doctrine revives the flesh — revives man in himself; and that is destructive of the first element in pure, unmixed Christianity. It builds again that which has been destroyed; it rakes among old ruins; it seeks the living among the dead; it busies itself in clothing a carcase; it is not in any wise a fellow-labourer with the Spirit, for it is dealing with man and not with Christ; it is of the world; for the apostle, in the strong language already conferred to in Col. 11: 20, challenges subjection to ordinances as a living in the world, and as unsuited to one that is dead and risen with Christ.

No wonder, then, that the apostle sets himself so zealously to the service of teaching the saints the great mystery, so bright and full as it is of the glory of God; and also to the service of gainsaying the leaven of the "teachers of the law," so destructive is it of glory. If he prized the grace of God in its purity and fulness, if he prized the liberty of the souls of the saints, if he valued the blood and work of Jesus, he must set himself to these services; he must withstand the pretensions of the flesh, wherever he met them, and spread among the saints the light and savour of this mystery of Christ. And so we find he did according to the working of God which wrought in him effectually. It was his jealousy lest that doctrine should be tainted; it was his delight and desire that that doctrine should be known. For the flesh, with all that it had, and all it could glory in, — whether its wisdom, strength, or religion, he had left to perish in its own corruption.

And in closing, let us ask, what will commonly be found in this enacting of days, and months, and times, and years — in this reviving of ordinances, and of the rudiments of the world? In those who impose them, there has been of old the design of fastening their own bonds round the hearts of their votaries; in those who adopt them, there is generally the blindness of the mere natural mind: but at times these things are the fruit of growing worldliness in professors. This "doing, doing," in religious observances is the miserable substitute for the walk of faith and communion with God in the Spirit. The world that crucified. Jesus is not heartily renounced, nor is Jesus Himself heartily embraced. The sweet savour of His name is departing, the freshness of His presence is fading, and the conscience, unsettled by this, seeks relief in the increased religiousness of the fleshly mind. The dark, cold heart, as it recedes from Christ, loses the vigorous, happy, genial sense, and puts on ornaments to hide from itself the growing feebleness of old age. It is well if they do not prove the. very funeral trappings of a dead body. The heart knows its own wretched ways and deceits too well not to be able to speak of these things. Would that we were more simple concerning such evil. But Christ in His sufficiency is only the more prized and the more clung to as either one's soul is tempted this way, or as one's eye and ear understand that this way is growing in a generation of large and corrupted profession.

Every Family in Heaven and on Earth

Every Family in Heaven and on Earth.

Eph. 3: 15

J. G. Bellett.

Section 9 of: Musings on Scripture, Vol. 3

The blessing of man, and with him of all creation, is to be determined simply by his position before God. Therefore to be without God is to be without hopein the world; and thus every renewed soul proves, in the daily, hourly history of his own little kingdom within, that his blessing is in the favour of the Lord, and that clouds and sorrows arise when that favour is withdrawn or forgotten. As man at first stood on the face of this earth of ours, his blessing was all of this character. He was blest because his whole condition reflected the kindness and love of his Creator. His very constitution was as the image of God, the manifestation of divine perfections and dominion (Gen. 1: 27); in the sabbath a standing witness of fellowship between him and his Creator was ordained (Gen. 2: 3); over him he had a most gracious Lord, who enjoined on him only a necessary burden (Gen. 2: 16); around him he saw a fair creation spread as his own domain, made willingly subject to him in its ten thousand sources of tribute and service, by their great Creator; for, in token of man's lordship of them all, the Lord brought them to him to be named, and whatsoever name Adam gave them the same. was the name thereof (Gen. 2: 19, see Isa. 40: 26). By his side, to complete the blessedness, he had given him of the Lord a companion fully meet for him, a part of himself, — bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh (Gen. 2: 22); and thus was his condition perfect and blessed in every relation, showing forth the kindness of God; and he had access to the tree of life to keep it so. But all this state of things was forfeited by transgression; — all blessing was gone when the divine favour was withdrawn, when enmity fell out between the righteous God and His offending creature; so did it between the creatures as among themselves. There was no longer the due subjection of the earth to Adam, when Adam had failed in his subjection to God; the earth yielded thorns and thistles to him, as soon as he had brought forth the fruit of a heart revolted from God. And the joys of innocency between the man and the woman were all likewise fled: their nakedness was now their shame, and confidence was changed for covering.

The whole economy of creature-blessedness in paradise, thus presented for a moment, and thus disturbed, was however a mystery; the tabernacle there was, it is true, quickly taken down, but not until we had seen in it the shadows of better things to come.

The purpose of God is not affected by this failure in man. The order of creation, as set in subjection to Adam for the glory of the Lord God, and the union of man with woman taken out of him, and thus made the partner of his name and dignity, is "a great mystery." We have divinely traced for us in all this, the union of Christ and the church, and the creation put in subjection under Him (see Ps. 8, Eph. 5: 23); and we look now for the opening of a happier paradise, for the erection of a second temple, that is never to be taken down, but to continue the blessed witness of the sustaining faithful strength of the Second Man, Who is the Lord from heaven; Who having bruised her enemy under her foot, will go in and out there with His espoused church, made "bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh," who shall then know the support and comfort of His right hand for ever.

The opening heavens do thus, as it were, shine around us in the opening of the book of God; the fellowship of heaven and earth that is there presented, the fellowship of man and the woman, the fellowship of man with the creation around him, shall all be displayed again, and that too in still more blessedness and glory; because of the dignity of the person, and the unspeakable riches and excellency of the work, of Him, in and by Whom all this is to be established. Christ Jesus our Lord is the single-handed power of God to do all this. He alone is the slayer and abolisher of every enmity; the reconciler and fixed centre of all this order and fellowship for ever; as it is written, "Hereafter shall ye see the heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1: 51); and again "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, He (God) might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him" (Eph. 1: 10).

Our Lord Christ who is at once "God over all, blessed for ever," and "Son of man," "made of a woman," Who, in the work given Him to do according to the everlasting covenant, descended first into the lower parts of the earth, and then ascended up far above all heavens, has title to "fill all things" (Eph. 4: 10): and in Him when He has asserted this His title, "every family in heaven and on earth" is to be gathered. May the Spirit who witnesses to Him, and shows the saints things to come, so trace before us those varied features of His glory, that desiring Him we may ever in Spirit be saying, "Come Lord Jesus!" And let us not be ashamed to own, "that hope long deferred maketh the heart sick," seeing that we should know no full satisfying joy till we see Him (John 16: 22). The Lord Jesus Who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification, and by Whom, through faith in His name, the poor sinner has even now full remission of sins, and access to God as his heavenly Father in full assurance of His love, is known in scripture to sustain the glorious characters, among many other, of King of Israel and Head of the church.

The Jewish nation had constant expectation of Messiah, in the first of these. To the hope connected with. Him as King of Israel, the twelve tribes, as the apostle says, instantly serving God day and night, hoped to come. It was therefore simply by such a character that the Jews tried the claims of Jesus of Nazareth. Thus when He spoke to them of being lifted up, signifying thereby what death He should die, they said to Him, (John 12: 34) "We have heard out of the law, that Christ abideth for ever; and how sayest Thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?" They had known their Messiah under this title of Son of man, but then it was in connection with a dominion, and glory and kingdom, that should never pass away; for thus had their prophet spoken (Dan. 7: 13, 14). But who was this Son of man who was thus "to be lifted up?" And His own apostles, whom He had called and chosen for Himself out of Israel, were thus Jewish in their expectation respecting Him; as appears, I might say, from the whole tenor of their intercourse with the Lord, and particularly from the request of Zebedee's children, and from the apostles, saying, even after He had risen from the dead, "Wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1: 6.) Besides, there was equal ignorance in the Jews and the apostles, touching the mystery of "the little while" (John 7: 33, John 16: 16). The difference between them did not rest in any different expectation respecting the Messiah, but rather in their faith or unbelief concerning the truth, that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

And this knowledge of Christ, according to the measure of Jewish hopes even by His own chosen ones, was only "after the flesh" (2 Cor. 5: 16); for it linked their expectations with this earth merely. It did not take them out of the system of human affections and associations, or guide them into the apprehension of any heavenly inheritance in and with Him. For this rests in the revelation of Him as Head of the church, and this character of Messiah is to be known only by the ministry of the Holy Ghost among the saints.

The second character of the Christ, Head of the church, with its resulting power in the church or body mystical, I judge to have been the mystery laid up in the purpose of God, but hid from ages and generations, i.e., not disclosed in former times or by previous dispensations (Rom. 16: 25, Eph. 3: 5). And there is involved in its very nature, if I may so speak, a necessity for its being thus hidden: for the blessed Lord entered into the character of Head of the church on His entrance into His heavenly glory, and this resulted from Israel's rejection of Him; so that the revelation of the Christ as Head of His body the church has to await the manifestation of Israel's apostacy, and thus could not, by dispensations, have been disclosed till the apostacy was so evidenced. That the Lord's entrance into His present glory in heaven resulted from Israel's apostacy, among other passages, is intimated by His own words in the presence of the great organs of Jewish unbelief, in the day of the power of darkness. When challenged of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, to say whether He were "The Christ the Son of God," after speaking in terms full of righteous condemnation of them, He convicts as it were the place of judgment, that behold iniquity was there, saying, "If I tell you, ye will not believe; and if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, or let me go." He adds, "From henceforth (ἁπὸ τοῦ νῖν) shall ye see the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God;" that is, that now was the time of exalting Him to His heavenly glory, since Israel had rejected Him, giving Him no place of glory on earth (Luke 22: 68, 69).

The Father has thus made man's wrath to praise Him. The Christ has lost His earthly glory for a season, being the Heir of the vineyard and yet cast out by the vineyard's wicked husbandmen; but the Father has raised the rejected Stone to the highest, and thus prepared larger joys and new honours to await Him in the coming day of the revelation of His glory.

During this present age (while waiting for Him Who has turned away His face in righteous anger from the house of Israel, until He repent and leave a blessing behind Him, Isa. 8: 17) the Christ, as "Head over all things to His church, is gathering His saints by His word and Spirit. The saints, "whose conversation is in heaven," who "sit in heavenly places," by the ministry of the Spirit, shall be brought to their perfect measure, and thus being constituted "the family in heaven," who are knit together in "the knowledge of the Son of God," will have their place with the Son in the Father's house; and in His, the Son's, kingdom (Eph. 4: 13, Isa. 14: 1, Rev. 3: 21).

This family, ordained for heaven, is already through the Spirit brought into circumstances altogether ultra-Jewish, if I may so speak. They are in the adoption, and not merely in the place of servitude (Gal. 4: 1-4), they are even now "blest with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies," not merely with blessings of the earth. They are in the expectancy of the inheritance of all things with Christ; and not merely becoming the subjects of a kingdom under Him (Rom. 8: 17). They are in present conflict not with flesh and blood, or with the nations of the earth, but with spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies, and are taught to hope for final victory over them, and of completely dispossessing them of their present place and power (Eph. 2: 2 with 1 Thess. 4: 17; see also Rev. 12: 10).

When the church is thus complete and Gentile fulness brought in, "all Israel" is to be saved (Rom. 11: 26). This present dispensation will have its purpose answered in the taking of the saints into their place of union in heaven with the Lord their Head, which is the first resurrection. Then the same blessed Lord, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in power, and on Whose head are to be "many crowns," will turn His hand to gather His family on earth, (for the blessings of the earth are Israel's, and all the nations in and through them) in the character of the King of Israel, or, "God of the whole earth" (Isa. 54: 5). His glory shall then arise on Zion, and the Gentiles shall come to the light thereof. He shall be set on the earth as God's salvation, to be the glory of His people Israel, and to embrace all the nations within the light of His presence (Luke 2: 32). Then shall come the glorious dispensation of the fulness of times, when all things, whether in heaven or on earth, will be gathered together in one, even in Christ (Eph. 1: 10). Then shall the fellowship of heaven and earth be restored, and Christ, as the true Jacob's ladder, be the Ruler and Sustainer of it all. Truth shall then spring out of the earth, and righteousness look down from heaven. The heavens and the earth, the morning stars and the children of Israel, the angels in the heights, and kings with all people of the earth, shall together praise the name of the Lord (Ps. 148). "His will shall be done in all places of His dominion, and the days of heaven shall be upon the earth" (Deut. 11: 21).

The verse which I have selected, as summarily presenting that truth which I am desiring to trace in this paper (Eph. 3: 15), has no doubt been commonly read as describing the saints who have departed this life, and are now, as is judged, in heaven; and those who are still in their bodies on the earth. I would be understood fully to grant that there are numbers of God's dear family now disembodied, in heaven, and members of the same family still on earth, and that these are, of course, included in "every family"; but then they cannot assuredly constitute of themselves that family in its wholeness. The family presented in its wholeness must wait for the day when all whom God regards as His are gathered together; and to which this passage in its natural bearing has respect. The purpose of the Holy Ghost in this verse (which may be treated as an adjective parenthesis) is, to tell us that "every family" acknowledges one God and Father, "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ"; thus leaving it for other scriptures to instruct us of whom it is that "every family" is to consist. It is this which, as desiring and praying to be fully subject to those scriptures, I am now aiming to do. May the Lord give us the Spirit of humble worshippers in all our labours.

Every family then, though part is in heaven and part on earth, shall be one, as owning one Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The heavenly branch of it is to be with the Firstborn in the Father's house, His God their God, His Father their Father, His dwelling their dwelling, His inheritance theirs also, the fulness of the Father's love theirs as His (John 17: 26; John 20: 17). "Ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." And the branch of it which is to be found on the earth will be gathered by and into a Father's love also; for the true Solomon, Christ as David's son, the Head of Jewish glory, shall enjoy that ancient promise of His God, "I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son;" and this joy resting in fulness on His head shall circulate among the thousands of His Israel; this oil of gladness shall descend from the beard to the skirts of the Aaron clothing; for Jehovah of old spake of Israel as His son, as His firstborn (Ex. 4: 22). So, in this dispensation, believers are made now the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5: 21), And the prophet, anticipating the day of Judah's salvation, says of Jerusalem, "This is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness" (Jer. 33: 16).

This leads me, then, to consider what is to be the principle upon which "every family in heaven and on earth" is to be formed. I desire, then, to consider the order, or successive acts of Christ by which these branches of the family of God are to be thus formed; and then also the connection and intercourse that may be maintained among them. Sweet meditations for faith and hope! though knowing but in part, we can but speak or think of these things in part.

As to the principle, by which every family of God is to be formed, it is mere grace — grace setting the saints in heaven, and establishing Israel with the worshipping obedient nations on the earth; grace coming forth from the love of God, to bring us home into the love of the Father. "God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all," is the apostle's summary of the Lord's dealings with the Gentiles and with Israel, after He had been tracing Israel's rejection for a time, in order to let in "the fulness of the Gentiles," and in the end to save all Israel; thus showing that mercy should alike rejoice through the gathered and blest families in heaven and on earth. And in the satisfying sense of this, he breaks forth into that note, not of ignorant, but of intelligent admiration, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out" (Rom. 11: 33). Here may our souls rest for ever; here may we dwell, having our delight therein, the mercy of our God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That grace is the principle of our present salvation, and our future inheritance, of that which is now reserved in heaven for us, is the sweet burthen, I would say, of all the New Testament scriptures, and to which every thought and feeling of the renewed soul must fully consent. I would not, therefore, speak particularly upon it. But that Israel is to come hereafter into the blessing of the earth, simply by grace, may be more carefully traced. Though gradually presented in many parts of scripture, yet it is specifically so in that beautiful scene recorded in Exodus 32 - 34, which has been already slightly referred to in one of the papers of this publication. I would here shortly refer to another passage (Deut. 29, 30), as exhibiting the same doctrine.

Moses had just pointed to the people the blessing and the curse that was necessarily appended to their obedience or disobedience (Deut. 28); when he calls them again to listen further to words of covenant between them and the Lord (Deut. 29: 1). He then recites generally the mercies they had enjoyed at the hand of God from their days in Egypt, telling them however that the Lord had not as yet circumcised their hearts (2-9). He then solemnly places them before the Lord as His people, warning them as he had done before, that disobedience would but cause them to be scattered through the earth, their land to be left a wilderness, and then themselves to become, as it were, a proverb and wonder to the nations of the world (10-29). He proceeds then to further unfold the Lord's covenant with them, showing them that when they had thus fully entered into the curse of disobedience, if they or the children (for that covenant equally embraced all generations) of them (Deut. 29: 15, Deut. 30: 2) should repent, then the Lord would have compassion on them and gather them, and circumcise their heart so that they should live for ever, and be blest in every work of their hand, in the fruit of their body, of their cattle, and of their land Deut. 30: 1-10). He then darkly hints to them on what this repentance was to be founded, i.e., faith; for he uses the very same words which the apostle quotes as expressive of the dispensation of faith or grace in opposition to that of law and works (11-14, Rom. 10: 6).

This dispensation then, of faith or grace, is that which is hereafter to establish Israel in the blessing of the earth for ever, when they repent, or in faith turn to Jesus their Messiah, looking to Him Whom they pierced (Zech. 12: 10), and welcoming Him as their King and Deliverer (Matt. 23: 39), saying, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." So also in Moses' Song, which follows very closely upon this (Deut. 32), we have the same covenant presented. For there, after the prophet had been forewarning his nation of the curse that was to come upon them for their unfaithfulness to Jehovah, he points to the land of the people in the distant future as receiving mercy, and speaks of this as that which was among other things sealed up among God's treasures (Deut. 32: 34-43), as he had before called the grace or mercy of God to Israel God's "secret" (Deut. 29: 29); and it is these sealed treasures of grace, this secret of mercy, that the Spirit largely discloses, and makes known in our dispensation, showing as He graciously does, "plainly of the Father."

That grace is thus the fountain of all blessing to Israel, and shall hereafter establish them in the land of their fathers, is presented to us also very strikingly in an event in the life of the patriarch Jacob. When he was returning with his households and flocks out of the land of his exile, his brother's heart was moved against him, and he came forth to meet him with four hundred men. Jacob commits his case into the bands of God, and from Him, in the action of wrestling with the Angel until he had prevailed, he receives a pledge that the mercy he desired should be his. And so it was; the anger that stirred in his brother's heart was quieted, and Jacob passed safely and honourably into the land of his covenant (Gen. 32: 24).

Now Jacob in all this stands before us as the type of Israel in the last times, when they shall come forth from their present exile to claim their promised inheritance; and their God and Deliverer shall show Himself in the hour of their need, to still the enemy and avenger, and give them the land of their fathers.

Jacob, Israel's representative, was taught by the Angel's touch disjointing the hollow of his thigh, to know that the blessing then pledged to him was all of grace: for that the Angel had not put forth all his strength, but had even allowed himself to be prevailed over; and just as our apostle who was given in like manner and with like purpose, a thorn in the flesh, that he might learn that he was weak in. himself, but through grace had all his sufficiency in Jesus (2 Cor. 12: 9).

Israel then, as Jacob was, shall be taken through grace into their earthly inheritance, and the church shall, through the same grace be taken into the heavenly glory; and thus mercy alone shall establish every family in heaven and on earth.

I would now beloved (through the mercy of our God, who would have His saints to meditate in His ways, and humbly and yet freely inquire in His temple), seek to trace from scripture what will be the order or procedure of our God when He comes to form His households and to set His every family in heaven and on earth. And what shall we ask Him by the Spirit to give us in this and in all our inquiries? The temper of children who consciously know nothing but through His word and teaching; the mind of friends who delight to use the privilege of friendship by learning his secrets, and claiming confidence: the unshod feet of worshippers ever heedful that the ground is holy. For though whatever things are written, are for our learning; yet are they the things of the blessed God, and we are but the creatures of His hand. And oh, for faith to trace these things, and meditate upon them, as though we stood in the presence of them; so that we may enter more and more into the substance of the things hoped for, and be less sensible of the things that are present, whether joyous or sorrowing; having blessed deliverance from their power, through the faith of the things that lie beyond them all.

The blessed Lord Jesus is now ascended up far above all heavens and is seated on the Father's throne, the place of incommunicable glory and majesty. He has gone up on high as a mighty conqueror, and has all power given Him in heaven and on earth. He has gone up on high as a mighty High Priest, to the service of the heavenly temple for us, waiting in sympathy on our infirmities, and being our Advocate with the Father. In these His ascension glories, He is exercising Himself for the completing the full measure and stature of His body the church, until it come to the "perfect man" in Christ. His long delayed return is "salvation, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." And thus His ascension state is not to be the last stage in His wondrous history. The heavens only retain Him until the times of the decreed restitution of all things be come. He then is to come again in like manner as He once went into heaven; as the high priest who once a year went into the holiest, came forth again to meet the people.

Now the order and progress of the Saviour's journey of old, back to the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, and also of His return and entrance into that glory which is still reserved for Him, may be somewhat traced in scripture. And what paths are these to trace!

In passing from the grave to His glory, having broken the bands of death because it was not possible that He should be holden in it, He stayed for a while on this earth, which of old He had given to the children of men. Here He spake with those who were His for forty days, concerning the kingdom of God; giving pledges to them of His constant faithful love, and showing not only that He Who was dead was alive again, but that He was going to glory — the same gracious Master Whose love in the days of His sojourn with them, had been ever so present to comfort and keep them.

In passing upward from them to His seat higher than all heavens, we may trace Him spoiling principalities and powers, the spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places, leading captivity captive, making show of them openly, triumphing over them (it may be in the sight of the elect angels), as the serpent's mighty bruiser, Who had come down to the earth, the house of the strong man, and, as the stronger than he, had bound him and spoiled his goods. Then, having accomplished His way back to the highest heavens, He was received of the Father and seated at His own right hand in token of the Father's infinite complacency in Him, and, for His sake, in the saints, for whom He had thus humbled Himself and fought and conquered. "Sit Thou on My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool," was the welcome with which He was then received. Sweet consolation for Him Who had heard the cry from earth, "We will not have this man to reign over us!" The fulness of joy awaited Him there, though here He was crucified. "In Thy presence is fulness of joy," said the Lord anticipating His ascension to the Father.

The season of His return from this His seat on high awaits the Father's pleasure, Who has put this in His own power, for the Son has subjected Himself according to the counsels of grace for us; He receives a kingdom and then returns. The present prince of the air, the spiritual wickedness that is now in the heavenly places, ruling the darkness of this world, is to be displaced. Michael and his angels are to fight against the dragon and his angels. Jesus is to descend from "On high" into these lower heavens, and by Michael to prevail, till the great dragon, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan, is cast out into the earth, and his angels with him, and no place be found for them any more in heaven (Rev. 12: 7-9).

The dragon, thus cast out of heaven, comes down with great wrath to the inhabitants of the earth and sea, his persecution being directed especially against Israel, who will then be brought into expectation of their Messiah as heir of David's throne; and thus consequently be witness to Him as heir of the world against the dragon the usurper of it, and the kings of the earth his champions. The dragon's title to the earth is already disproved, as indeed the Lord's right to every thing from the grave of death to the throne of the Highest in heaven, has been blessedly manifested by His passing through all these, rising in the execution of His mighty work as the descended and ascended One; but He the rightful heir has not actually assumed His right; and thus the usurper has still power, and throne, and great authority to confer, which he will do until He comes Whose all power is.

And come He will with "ten thousands of His saints," to smite the kings of the earth, to show Himself as the mighty God, the Kinsman-Redeemer, Who shall deliver the inheritance of the family of God, and fix it in their possession for ever.

His action, as the Goel or Redeemer, as appears, will be conducted in the wrath of the Lamb, against the Antichrist* and his company, who have despised His grace as the Lamb of God presented to them for the taking away of sin; and in the wrath of the Son (Who as being Son should have been acknowledged to be Heir also) against the kings and judges of the earth who refused to do righteously as for Him, King of kings and Lord of lords, but held themselves as the ministers of iniquity and champions of the usurper (Rev. 6: 16; Ps. 11, 12). The citizens of this world sent after the departing Lord the cry, "We will not have this man to reign over us;" that cry has been echoed through their ranks ever since, and will be kept up until it is answered in righteous wrath. "These mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me," (Luke 19: 2 7). O my God, make them like a wheel, as the stubble before the wind; as the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire, so persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with Thy storm; fill their faces with shame, that they may seek Thy name, O Lord; let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea let them be put to shame and perish; that men may know that Thou, Whose name alone is Jehovah, art Most High over all the earth" (Psalm 83: 13-18). How terrible that such language as this should be righteously taken up on the lips of those who are now beseeching the powers of the earth to be reconciled to this blessed Son! "Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling; kiss the Son lest He be angry and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him" (Ps. 2: 10-12). But if the counsel of the Lord be now set at nought, the coming calamity will be laughed at. Blessed, blessed Lord, write all Thy word with Thine own living Spirit on the fleshy tables of our hearts, that we may not in out weakness only speak of these things, but in His power have, our life in them, and according to them! It is then that the Lord will awake as out of sleep (Ps. 10: 12, Ps. 44: 23); then will He, to Whom vengeance belongeth, show Himself (Ps. 94: 1). He Whose right hand (the emblem of His power) is now folded in His bosom, will then pluck it thence to use it (Ps. 74: 10, 11); to use it as the true David for the clearing of the promised inheritance of all the enemies of God and His people; and then for the sitting down as the true Solomon, in the fulness and peace of His kingly honours; His sun rising on the earth as a morning without clouds (2 Sam. 23: 4); His light enlightening the Gentiles, and being the glory of His people Israel; the first dominion, the kingdom brought to the daughter of Jerusalem, but the people of the nations flowing into it — the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, being then called the God of the whole earth (Isa. 54: 1-5; Ps. 72: 8-11; Micah 4: 1-8).

[*There is confusion here, as indeed it is a very general oversight, between the Beast or imperial power of the West, and the second Beast, or false prophet and Antichrist who will then reign in Jerusalem, sustained by the Western head. ED.]

This shall be the gathering of "every family on earth," the full display of the kingdom, when the will of God shall be done on earth as it is done in heaven, when the days of heaven shall be upon the earth (Deut. 11: 21); all bowing their knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and every tongue confessing that the once rejected Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2: 11).

This order of gathering, first every family in heaven, and then every family on earth, is, as I apprehend, represented in several scriptures, as in Rom. 11, already alluded to, "The fulness of the Gentiles," preceding the salvation of "all Israel." I will, however, in addition, only notice the twelfth chapter of St. John, which very fully and graciously gives us to look at this order of Christ's procedure in taking the heaven and the earth, and gathering His families there.

When the chapter opens, our blessed Lord's paschal sufferings were approaching very slowly. He was on His way to Jerusalem as the place out of which a prophet could not perish. He first reaches Bethany, which lay outside the city, and is there refreshed: and the scene represents us with a lively figure of the Lord in the bosom of His church, as we may draw from the following considerations: —

1. — This house in Bethany exhibited a sample of faith in Him as dead and alive again. The anointing His feet, by the loving, worshipping Mary, was in token of her faith in His burial and all its blessed wondrous fruit. It expressed her faith in Him as the Holy One of God, Whose body should not see corruption, but that He, the Jesus, Who was about to be crucified, should be anointed, and glorified, and consecrated to a royal priesthood; for this was signified by the ceremonial oil of the law, whose mystical virtues her pot of spikenard would fain rival and set forth. And such is the faith of the church now. She stands as believing in Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead (Rom. 4: 24); Who wrought His mighty power in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies, far above. all principality, and power, and dominion (Eph. 1: 20); in God Who has exalted Jesus, obedient unto death, and given Him a name, at which every knee in heaven, and earth, and under the earth, should bow (Phil. 2: 8-10).

2. So this house, as the church does, witnessed His resurrection-power in the person of Lazarus. "You hath He quickened," is the word to every member of the church, "who were dead in trespasses and sins." "If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." And Lazarus, the witness of Christ's resurrection-power is, in this house of blessing, seen seated with the Lord, in token of that full fellowship which the saints are to have with Him, when they sit at His table with Him in His kingdom (Matt. 26: 29).

3. This house in Bethany was the place into which the Lord retired when He was rejected by Israel (see Matt. 21: 17; Mark 11: 11-19); as the church is the place. of His presence, the witness of His grace and power, while Israel remains in unbelief and separation from Him. "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples, and I will wait upon the Lord that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him" (Isa. 8: 16, 17; see also Deut. 32: 20; Isa. 65: 1, 2).

Thus are we given to trace, in this happy household at Bethany, the sure resemblance of the church of God; which the Lord by His Spirit is now gathering, and which is, when brought to its fulness, to constitute the family of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven.

After giving a view of our Lord in the midst of this, beloved household, our next chapter presents Him entering into the royal city as Son of David. On this occasion He is attended with crowds of His willing people, triumphantly bidding Him welcome as the King of Israel. All this was illustrative of that day, when, after the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, or the church is perfected in all its members, this same Jesus shall come to Zion, "and all Israel shall be saved"; when He, for whom as Head His body is now preparing, shall as King of Israel gather His willing people around Him, and reign Himself over the earth the Heir of all its glory.

And when the Lord has thus taken His throne in Jerusalem, the destined centre of the whole earth, "the city of the great King," He will speedily receive the heathen for His inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for His possession; for the Holy One of Israel shall be called the God of the whole earth (Isa. 54: 5). The one Jehovah shall be King over all the earth (Zech. 14: 9). To the Shiloh of Judah shall then be the gathering of the peoples (Gen. 49: 10); and the kingdom of the world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (Rev. 11: 15). And so, as this chapter proceeds, we have a sample of this gathering to Shiloh; for, after His royal entry into Jerusalem, me see our blessed Jesus receiving the willing homage of the Gentiles, who came to worship there, in pledge as it were of that day when every one shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles (Zech. 14: 16; Isa. 66: 23): and, when many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts at, Jerusalem" (Zech. 8: 22).

Then shall every family on earth be collected under the same blessed One and Head as is every family in heaven, and the promised "greater things" shall then be seen, the union and yet distinctness of heaven and earth, "the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1: 51).*

[*The application of this verse in the Gospel is either "henceforth" or unlimited if the note of time be omitted, as seems to be the best reading. ED.]

Thus does this chapter give us a view of the order in which the gatherings of the Lord's households are, as I believe scripture teaches us, to be conducted: the church brought to her fulness, and seated with the Lord at His table in His kingdom; Israel saved — their Kinsman-Redeemer, their Royal Deliverer in their midst, and on His throne in Zion; and then the uttermost parts of the earth taken into possession, and made the worshippers of Him Who is "the desire of all nations" (Haggai 2: 7). When these scenes had thus passed in review before Him, the blessed Jesus was wrapt into vision of the day of His glory. "The hour is come," says He, "that the Son of Man should be glorified" (John 12: 23). We shall not however here follow (though of deep. and affecting interest to the soul that adheres to Him in love and desire) the course of His thoughts in the verses that follow. Only we will observe, that He at once recognised the necessity of His previous sufferings; for thus had the prophets testified beforehand, "The sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow" (1 Peter 1: 11).

I have been tracing the principle upon which every family of God is to be formed, and the order in which the several branches of it are to be gathered. I would now close with presenting a few hints from scripture of the connection and intercourse that is to be known between every family in heaven and every family on earth, all acknowledging, as they will, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have many distinct intimations of the character of intercourse which may then be enjoyed between the glorified saints, "the children of the resurrection," and the subject people of the earth.

Our Lord Himself had fellowship of a very peculiar character with His disciples after He had risen from the dead. He did not dwell among them as one of themselves, as He had done before He suffered: their lodging and their repast were not His, as they had been; but He went in and out among them as it pleased Him or the Father (Acts 10: 40, ἐδωκεν αὐτὸν ἐμφανῆ γενέσθαι); and, though just the same Master as before, full of the graciousness of First-born among many brethren, yet was He, to their sense, and indeed, in a another form, His body had passed through its change; it was flesh and bones (Luke 24: 39), instinct with spirit and not with blood (1 Cor. 15: 44); but consistent with His glory. He appeared at pleasure in different forms to His elect; as of old while predestinatively assuming His risen body, He had appeared to Abraham, Jacob, Joshua, and others (see Luke 24: 15; John 20: 5-15). And I believe He did then show Himself after His resurrection, in order, among other purposes, to give us to know something of that manner of intercourse that shall pass between the glorified saints, and the restored and sanctified families of man upon the earth.

A passing glimpse we have of the same thing in the bodies of many of the saints arising, after the Lord had risen, and coming out of the graves, and going into the holy city and appearing to many (Matt. 27: 53). We have also, as I judge, a gracious sample of this fellowship given to us, at the time when Israel was first brought into covenant with Jehovah, while the blood of sprinkling was still warm and fresh upon them, and before they had done any despite to the mercy of their God, but had rather said, "All that the Lord hath said, will we do and be obedient." Moses with his train went up to the Lord, "and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven, in clearness." Moses alone came near, alone goes into the Mount, but the elders were eye-witnesses of the Majesty of the God of Israel, — they stand undismayed in the sight, though not, like Moses, in the midst, of the cloud of glory; — "they saw God, and did eat and drink" (Exodus 24); thus showing the distinction of being in the glory, and outside of it, and yet in some sort in fellowship together.

So, in the holy mount, we have a very sweet exhibition of the same intercourse, and Moses is seen in the same place of glory. The Lord is there with His raised and changed saints Moses and Elias in glory; and His disciples, still as inhabiters of the earth in their bodies of flesh and blood, are brought into nearest view of that glory. The holy Jerusalem having the glory of God, with the Lamb the light thereof, is there, as it were, shown to us; its pearly gates are opened before us, and the nations are seen as walking in the light of it (Rev. 21: 24). The disciples were not in the heavens; for as one of them says, the "voice which came from heaven we heard" (2 Peter 1: 18); but though they did not enter with Moses and Elias into the cloud of the excellent glory (see Luke 9: 34, Gr.), yet they saw it and have spoken of it (2 Peter 1: 17). They have testified to us that they have been "eye-witnesses of His Majesty"; as hereafter in the kingdom, the remnant that is saved shall go "to the isles afar off," saith Jehovah-Jesus, "that have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles" (Isa. 66: 19). And this distinction of being in the glory, and of only standing in the presence of it, appears to be given to us by the apostle, as the several callings of the church and of Israel (see 2 Cor. 3: 12-18). He there anticipates the day when Israel. shall turn to the Lord, and the veil shall be taken away; when they shall be able to look on. the glory without dismay — that glory into the image of which by the Spirit, the church, like Moses, was to be changed (Phil. 3: 21).

In the day when Israel, the unfaithful, is betrothed to the Lord for ever, and her land is married, the harmony of all the parts of the redeemed system of the heavens and the earth (having Jehovah in the highest, and beneath, the whole creation which now groans and travails in pain, brought into the liberty of the glory of God's sons), is exhibited by the prophet Hosea, "And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground; and I will break the bow, and the sword, and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely: and I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness and judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord; and it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel" (Hosea 2: 18-22).

So, Jacob's vision of the ladder, whose foot was set upon the earth, and the top of which reached into heaven, also gives us another image of the same fellowship. The heavens were seen, as it were, shining in their brightness, high above the earth on which the patriarch was resting, but all the while the angels of God were travelling up and down the ladder. So shall the saints, the children of the resurrection, who shall be "as the angels," and shall become sharers of the Son's throne, pass and repass throughout the regions which acknowledge Him the heir of all things; and what less shall the earth then be, than "The gate a heaven?" (Gen. 28: 17.)

And I will here further observe, as so taught by the word of God, that when heaven is thus opened upon the earth, hell will be shut; for He Who prevails to take the keys of heaven, and claim it as His throne, and to open it to all believers, Who prevails to take the key of the house of David, and in like manner to claim the earth for His footstool, and to gather His ransomed tribes and worshipping nations there, will likewise prevail to take the key of the bottomless pit and there bind and shut up the dragon. And is it not sweet in the midst of present distraction, to think on the concord of the whole acknowledged creation when thus the offence is taken away, when nothing shall hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain, when "there shall be one Lord and His name One?

The vision of the glory, which Ezekiel had, appears specially to mark out this harmony throughout all the reign or the government of the Son of Man in His day: the hosts of heaven in their glories, the movements upon earth in their multiplied complexity still obedient to the same Spirit, under the sceptre of Him Who will then exercise, as now He has title to, "all power in heaven and in earth" (Ezek. 1). So this harmony is as the temple, which with its holy and most holy place, — one for the ark, the other for the footstool of our God (1 Chr. 28: 2) — was still one temple. As when Isaiah saw the Lord, He was seated within the veil, but His train filled the temple; the body of the glory in that day shall be in heaven, but its presence shall be known and felt on earth. And oh! what gladness for man then, when, like Jacob, he shall walk on the earth in the blessed consciousness that it is none other than "the gate of heaven!" — the whole earth an extended Bethel; — "The house of God,"

Thus it is said, that it is in the manifestation of the sons of God creation shall rejoice: the heavens, where the sons are set, shall shine unhinderedly upon the earth; and the creation, as it were, consciously repose in the light thereof. For all things shall be gathered into one; and though still they be things on earth and things in heaven, yet the earth shall, as it were, touch the skirtings of the heavens, as now, at times, we know not whether it be the clouds of heaven, or the high lands of the earth, that we see in the distant shadowy prospect. Paradise with its tree of life shall be restored, without access for the Serpent; and no tree of knowledge shall be there to put man to proof of his subjection to God; but, instead of it, the priesthood of the King shall be there, witnessing to His subjection in the continued offering of praise to our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are on the sea, and all that are in them, shall be heard saying, "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever!" "They shall speak," O Jehovah-Jesus, "of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of Thy power." "O Jehovah, our Lord," shall Israel and the nations sing, "how excellent is Thy name in all the earth, Who hast set Thy glory above the heavens," and the heavens shall shout "Hallelujah."

The Father

The Father.

John 14 - 17.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 7 p. 65.

"I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it." These words were spoken to the Father by Christ respecting the saints. They tell us that the great business of the Lord was to acquaint saints with the Father, that such had already been His business, and that such He purposed should be his business still.

This is full of blessing. To think that our souls are under such instruction as this! The Son nourishing and enlarging in us the sense and understanding of the Father's love, and using His diligence to give our hearts that joy and to give it to us more abundantly! We may be slow and we are slow to learn it. We naturally suspect all happy thoughts of God. Christ has to use diligence and to put forth energy in teaching us such a lesson. "I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it." But so it is. This is the lesson of which He is the teacher, and our inaptness to learn it magnifies His grace, for he is still at it, still teaching the same lesson.

The earlier chapters (14 - 16) show us Christ declaring the Father. They begin with His telling us that the Father has opened His own house to us — nay, that He had built it with direct respect to us, having made it a many-mansioned house for our reception. (John 14: 2.)

He then, with some resentment of their unbelief, tells them that the Father had been already revealing Himself to them. "Have I been so long time with you, and hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Because the things He had said and done, He had said and done as Son of the Father, as the One who was in the Father and in whom also the Father was. (Ver. 5-14.)*

*The Lord's rebuke of Philip has not such direct application to Philip's unbelief touching the person of the Son, as to his unbelief respecting the revelation of the Father which had been made by the Son; the other is involved.

For this was natural unbelief, the indisposedness to learn the lesson of the Father of which I have spoken. And happy it is to find it here rebuked by the Lord. Indeed it is only faith which can sit as Christ's pupil — that principle which only listens. The moral sense of man reasons itself out of that school.

Jesus, however, goes on with the lesson in spite of this dullness. He tells them, after this interruption, how He purposed, when away, to glorify the Father in their works and in their experience. (Ver. 12-14.) And then He tells them that the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, the Holy Ghost, who was about to come to them, would come as the Spirit of the Father, letting them know that they were not orphans, but had the life of the Son in them. (Ver. 16-20.) And again He tells them that the keeping of His word would secure to their souls the presence and fellowship of the Father, as well as His, because the word was not His, but the Father's who had sent Him. (Ver. 21-24.) This word or commandment which was to be kept in order to this fellowship being secured to the soul was about love, because it was the word brought by the Son from the Father, and not a word brought from a king, or from a judge, or from a legislator. (See John 13: 34; John 15: 12, 17.)

In all these truly blessed ways He declares the Father to us and uses Himself only as the witness or servant of such a revelation. His own personal glory is implied in such a service; but that is not His object — the declaration of the Father is. And so also, as He proceeds through this wondrous discourse, He declares the Father to be the husbandman of the vine, thereby letting us know, that the fruit sought for is fruit worthy of a Father's hand, fruit which children, not servants or subjects, must yield. (John 15: 1-14.) And again, the friendship He introduces them to with Himself has respect to the Father, because it was the Father's secrets He was communicating to them in the confidence of friendship. (Ver. 15.) And then, at the close of the same chapter, He presents the world simply in the character of having hated the Father, testified in and by the Son. ( Ver. 23, 24.)

How does all this make good the word, "I have declared unto them thy name!" But further. He anticipates the day of the Holy Ghost, but He does this in constant recollection and mention of the Father. The Spirit was the Spirit of the Father, given by Him, sent by Him (John 14: 16, 26; John 15: 26); and when He came, their divine Teacher now tells them that they should ask the Father and receive from Him, that this their joy as children who know a Father's love and blessing should be full. (John 16: 23, 24.)* And He further tells them that in that day they should plainly know their adoption, or their place with the Father. (Ver. 25.)

*It is not the thing they receive which makes their joy full, but the proof they get through it that they have their Father's heart and ear. The Father, not the gift, does this for them, filling up their joy. (See John 16: 24.)

And somewhat beyond all this, and as crowning all He had said, He tells them that His prayers for them in heaven were not to be understood as though they and the Father were somewhat distant from each other, but that rather they must assure themselves that the Father's love rested immediately on them, as in the full power of the relation in which He stood to them. (John 16: 26, 27.)

Thus, it was the name of the Father He was declaring to them all through these wonderful chapters, bringing the Father into the thoughts and enjoyments of their hearts. And if love and heaven be prized by us, what welcome communications will these be!

So, on the closing chapter (John 17) we may say, No tidings from us return to God so acceptably as this, that we have, by faith, received these tidings of the Father. The Son brought a message of love to us from the bosom of the Father, and if He now report to the Father that we have received the message, this will be the most prized answer with the Father. And such receiving of this word about the Father will also be our truest sanctification or separation from the world, for the world is that which refuses to know the Father.

I might more shortly express it thus. In John 14 - 16 the Lord purposes to put our souls into communion with the Father. He fills the soul with thoughts of the Father; recollections, present exercises of spirit, and prospects, are all by Him connected with the Father. He tells us, it is the Father's house that is to receive us by and by, it was the Father who had been working and speaking in Him, so that what HE, had said and done had been the sayings and doings of the Father; that greater works than He had done they soon should do, for He was going to the Father; that the Comforter would be sent to them from the Father; that their fruitfulness should arise from the Father being the husbandman; that the world would hate them, because it knew not the Father nor Him that the Father Himself loved them, and that they should soon enter into the sense of their relationship to Him.

If the Spirit of truth, the Comforter, realize these things to us, we may set our seals to that word, "it is expedient for you that I go away."* May this blessed sense of relationship fill and satisfy our souls more abundantly!

*So, I may say, the Lords purpose in John 13 is to put our souls in communion with Himself in heaven.

He shows us Himself in heaven; as the very home of love and of glory, because He was to be restored to the Father there, and to have all things put into His hand by God there. And after this manner He anticipates heaven as the home of love and of glory to Him.

But then He lets us know that He would ever continue in His love towards us there, and in His service of our necessities — that, though there, He could never forsake either us or our need. Thus He seeks to put us into communion  with Himself as He is now in heaven, just as afterwards (in John 14 - 16) He seeks to put us, as I have been observing, into communion with the Father.

Fragment of Letter

Fragment of Letter.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 18, 1891, p. 294.

. . . . I was struck a few days since by a sight of the disciples and their Lord in the matter of feeding the multitude. It gave me to see the two great objects in close and full contrast — man and God, the heart that we carry, and the heart of Jesus.

In Matthew 14 the motion begins with the disciples, but it is to dismiss the multitude rather than to feed them. 'Send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.' This was a wretched motion of their heart. It was, as we say, one word for the multitude and two for themselves; for they wanted to be left alone, and felt the intrusion of the people. (See Mark 6.) There was something both of hypocrisy and coldheartedness in this motion. It was a wretched sample of the common selfishness.

The Lord's heart was different. He at once speaks of feeding them on the spot, and not of sending them away. And how blessed when our hearts are rebuked by His, beloved, when the dark ground of our selfishness only after this manner sets off the brightness of His grace and love. We ought to delight in that light which, while it rebukes us, brings Him in, and leaves His reflection with us.

But the disciples are angry. They have but a few loaves and fishes. How could they spread a table for such a multitude? Here was a further disclosure of their naughty hearts. There was no faith there, as there was no love there. They knew of nothing but the palpable provision of their basket — loaves and fishes. They did not calculate on having Christ Himself in the midst of them. And this Jesus silently rebukes. 'Bring them hither to Me'; as if to intimate, You have more in your company than loaves and fishes; you have the God of the desert, who once fed your fathers there forty years. And He then proved that His arm was not shortened that it could not save, but spread a table in the wilderness again. Here was man and God. Here was the heart we carry and the heart of Jesus. But Jesus does not upbraid them. He lets their own reins chasten them, giving them another witness of Himself in treading the waves as He had fed the people.

In the next chapter, Matthew 15, on the like occasion, the motion begins with Him, and not with them, as before. But, oh, how different! How differently does the heart of Christ enter the scene of human need from what their heart had entered it. 'I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with Me three days, and have nothing to eat. If I shall send them away they will faint by the way, for divers of them come from far.' It is not with Him as with them, 'Send the multitude away'; but, 'I have compassion on the multitude: He shows how minutely He had acquainted Himself with their sorrow, taking notice of the time they had been with Him, of the journey they had to take, and of the distance they had come. (See Mark 7: 2, 3.)

There is something perfect in all this minuteness. But there is nothing to correspond with it in the hearts of the disciples. They are wanting towards their fellows and towards their Lord. They have no answer for this motion on the part of their Master but that which sadly betrayed their heart in contrast with His. The recollection of the late feeding of the multitude seems to have entirely departed. They are only again full of the impossibility of feeding so many with so slender a provision as they had. Would we have believed it, dear brother, that they could so soon have forgotten the lesson of the previous chapter, and that too under the very same circumstances? We might say they could not have forgotten it. But it appears to have left them altogether, so indifferent is the heart of man to the display of the glory of God, and so careless to the cry and need of the sorrow around.

We look at the two objects — man and God, the heart we carry and the heart of Jesus. We are to be humbled by the one and comforted by the other. The contrast is perfect, as these occasions of feeding the multitude show us. But it is happy to see that the heart of Christ is not wearied out by what it again and again got from man and in man. He did not give up His disciples after such discoveries as these; but on He went with them in patient love even to the end, though such occasions may let us see what a coarse and opposing material He had to do with.

Be sure, beloved, you do not know one of these lessons without the other. Learn what man is, that you may be humbled; learn what God is, that you may be comforted. But I only speak by way of common edification and communion with you; for it is easier to teach the lessons of God than to learn them, as I know. J. G. B."

Fragment

Fragment.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 6 p. 3.

Galatians. — The apostle would establish the saints in personal, immediate confidence in God, from which Judaism was withdrawing them. He does this by showing them his own commission, revelations, experience, and acts, all immediate and personal (Gal. 1, 2); and then by challenges and reasonings. (Gal. 3.) Thus he would form Christ in them, the spirit of the free woman. (Gal. 4.) Hope and service of love would be the fruit of this. (Gal. 5.) And so, personal and immediate with God, would he have them in commonest duties (Gal. 6: 14); and in like spirit he closes with his body and their spirit. He would set each of us for himself at the door of the tabernacle to learn the secrets of God for ourselves. (Lev. 8, 9.) The patriarchs, sinners in John's gospel, as well as Paul, went down to Arabia; that is, they needed no ordinances [like Israel under law], having immediate, personal communion with God in Christ and the promises. Paul would have Peter take that journey (Gal. 2), and the Galatians take it again. (Gal. 3, 4.)

An Extract.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend  Vol. 3. p. 186.

I have just been reading again that lovely fourth chapter of John. What a little heaven it is to sit in spirit there, and be in company with Him that is the eternal life, in full grace dispensing Himself to one of the degraded captives of pollution and death!

The satisfying water springs from that grace in the Son of God which reaches and quiets the conscience; and it was such that Jesus here dispenses to her. Till our need as sinners is met and answered, we must be thirsting again, let us get what we may, because the soul is not at rest with God. But Jesus came to repair the breach in the conscience-to give rest before God, and in God, and thus to impart the satisfying water of life through the Holy Ghost.

And when this is done, in a great divine sense, the end is reached — God is glorified — the sinner made happy, and entrance into the places of glory becomes a necessary result.

This end is beautifully shown in this same exquisite and marvellous chapter; for the woman goes away with a spirit in deep refreshment because of conscious acceptance and life, and the Son of God Himself is so satisfied in the fruit of His own way, that He has had that which sets Him above the thirst He had been feeling and the food He had wanted. 'I have meat to eat that ye know not of.' It was as manna to Him. What a thought! the Son of God comes down to our degraded earth to find His manna, His strange mysterious food and satisfaction of heart — bread which He could never have known in heaven — a joy that He could never have tasted amid the glories of His unfallen creatures. But here, on earth, among sinners, He finds, in the dispensing of the Father's grace, the deepest and fullest answer of all the longings of His divine love.

When a sinner is happy in Him, His end is reached, and so is ours, and all that remains is to spend eternity in the glory that becomes such an end as this-His joy in us, and ours in Him."

"In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

1 Thess. 5: 18.

"In everything give thanks."

My God, is this Thy will?

Give thanks for disappointments given,

For prayers unanswer'd still?

Give thanks! In vain I've pray'd

That I might useful be,

And by Thy Spirit's helpful aid,

Bring many souls to Thee.

Give thanks! when in the place

Of health and usefulness,

Through sickness, Thou hast paled my face

With pain and weariness.

Give thanks! If 'twere Thy will

Submission to demand,

I then might bid myself be still,

And bow to Thy command.

But hush, beneath my eye

I see, in words of blood,

"Will He who gave His Son to die,

Refuse thee any good?"

Give thanks! Yea, Lord, I do,

And by Thy help I will,

Give thanks for blessings not received,

Although expected still.

Give thanks for mercies given,

Unnoticed oft by me;

Give thanks for sins forgiven,

Known only, Lord, to Thee.

Give thanks in word and deed,

For Thy surpassing love,

That sent Thy Son on earth to save,

And now to plead above.

Give thanks for tender love,

That our Redeemer show'd,

Who, in the absence of Himself,

A Comforter bestow'd.

Oh grant me by Thy grace

To walk by faith alone,

Until before my Father's face,

I know as I am known!

J. G. B.

Fragment

JG Bellett

Christian Friend  Vol. 11. p. 37.

"GLORY in a crucified Christ will not, if alone, be the perfect thing of this age, there must be companionship with a rejected Christ also. I am thinking that Babylon may be brought to glory in a crucified Christ; that is, there may be much evangelic truth confessed in systems which will be judged at Babylon. For what is Babylon? Is it not a thing faulty or worldly in conduct, as well as idolatrous in doctrine? The seventeenth and eighteenth of Revelation gives me a sight of Babylon in its worldly iniquity, much more than in its idolatries. She may preach Christ crucified, but she is not in fellowship with Christ. Rejected — she does not continue with Him in His temptations. Is not the rejection of Christ the great practical thought for this moment?" J. G. B.

"By faith of the Son of God."

"By faith of the Son of God."

Gal. 2: 20.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. N6 p. 312.

There is a character of truth in the Epistle to the Galatians, very seasonable at this present time, and very strengthening to the soul at all times.

It teaches us to know that the religion of faith is the religion of immediate personal confidence in Christ. A truth which is, again I say, seasonable in a day like the present; when the provisions and claims of certain earthly church forms, and a system of ordinances, suggested by the religious, carnal mind, are abundant and fascinating. To learn, at all times, that our souls are to have their immediate business with Christ is comforting and assuring. To be told this afresh, at such a time as the present, is needful.

The apostle is very fervent in this epistle — naturally and properly so — as we all should be, as we all ought to be, when some justly prized possession is invaded; when some precious portion of truth, the dearest of all possessions, is tampered with.

In this epistle, in the first instance, as at the beginning, the apostle lets us know, with great force and plainness, that he had received his apostleship immediately from God; not only his commission or his office, but his instructions also; that which he had to minister and testify, as well as his appointment and ministry itself. He was an apostle immediately from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; and what he knew and taught he had by direct, immediate revelation.

And, in connection with this, he tells us, that as God had thus dealt immediately with him, so had he, in answering confidence, dealt immediately with God. For, having received the revelation, having had the Son revealed in him, he at once withdrew from conversing with flesh and blood. He did not go up to Jerusalem, to those who were apostles before him, but down to Arabia, carrying, as it were, his treasure with him; not seeking to improve it, but as one that was satisfied with it just as it was, that is, with the Christ who had now been given to him.

And, here, let me say, this brings to mind the Gospel by John, for that gives us, before this time of Paul, sample after sample of the soul finding its satisfaction in Christ. Every quickened one there illustrates it. Andrew, and Peter, and Philip, and Nathanael, in the first chapter, afterwards the Samaritan and her companions at Sychar, and then the convicted adulteress and the excommunicated beggar — all of them tell us, in language which cannot be misunderstood, that they had found satisfaction in Christ, that having been alone with Him in their sins, they were now independent — having had a personal immediate dealing with Him as the Saviour, they looked not elsewhere. Arabia will do for them as well as Jerusalem, just as in the experience of the Paul of the Galatians. They never appear to converse with flesh and blood. Ordinances are in no measure their confidence. Their souls are proving that faith is that principle which puts sinners into immediate contact with Christ, and makes them independent of all that man can do for them.

How unspeakably blessed to see such a state of soul illustrated in any fellow-sinner, in men "of like passions with ourselves," like corruptions, like state of guilt and condemnation. Such things are surely written for our learning, that by comfort of such scriptures we may have assurance and liberty.

And what is thus, in living samples, illustrated, for our comfort, in John's Gospel, is taught and pressed upon us in this fervent Epistle of Paul to the Galatians. Having shown the churches in Galatia the character of his apostleship, how he got both his commission and his instructions immediately from God, and was not debtor to flesh and blood, to Jerusalem the city of solemnities, or to those who were apostles before him, for anything; and having discovered, as it were, his very spirit to them, telling them that the life he was now living was by the faith of the Son of God, he begins to challenge them; for they were not in this state of soul.

He calls them "foolish," and tells them they had been "bewitched." For how could he do less than detect the working of Satan in the fact, that they had been withdrawn from the place where the Spirit and the truth, the cross of Christ and faith, had once put them. But then he reasons with them, argues the matter, and calls forth his witnesses. He makes themselves their judges, appealing to their first estate. "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" He cites Abraham in proof that a sinner had immediate personal business with Christ, and through faith found justification. And he rehearses the character of the gospel which had been preached to Abraham, how it told of Christ and of the sinner and blessing being put together and alone. "In thee (Abraham's seed, which is Christ) shall all nations be blessed." Precious gospel! Christ and the sinner and blessing bound up together in one bundle. And he goes on to confirm and establish this, by teaching them how Christ bore the curse, and, therefore, surely was entitled to dispense the blessing.

Surely these are witnesses which may well be received, as proving; the divine character of the religion of faith, which is the sinner's immediate confidence in Christ.

But then, he does further and other service in this same cause. He goes on to tell us the glorious things faith works and accomplishes in us and for us. "After faith is come," he tells us in Galatians 3: 25-27, "we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For we are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ." Here are precious deeds of faith! It dismisses the schoolmaster; it brings the soul to God as to a father, and then it clothes the believer with the value of Christ in the eye and acceptance of God. And "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal. 4: 6). And "we are redeemed from under the law" (Gal. 4: 5). Can any more full and perfect sense of an immediate dealing between Christ and the soul be conceived, than is expressed and declared by such statements? We are brought from under the law — the schoolmaster, and, with him, tutors and governors are gone; we are "sons" at home in the Father's house, and have the rights and the mind of the First-born Himself put on us, and imparted to us! Can any condition of soul more blessedly set forth our independence of the resources of a religion of ordinances, and the poor sinner's personal and immediate connection with Christ Himself?

But Paul finds the churches in Galatia in a backsliding state. They had turned again "to weak and beggarly elements." They were "observing days, and months, and times, and years." It was all but returning to their former idolatry, as he solemnly hints to them, "doing service to them which by nature are no gods," as they had been doing in the days of their heathen ignorance of the true God (Gal. 4: 8). What a connection does he here put the Christianity that is merely formal and observant of imposed ordinances into? Is it not solemn? Was it not enough to alarm him? And does it not do so? "I am afraid of you," says he to the Galatians in this state, "lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain."

But, man of God as he was, gracious, patient, and toiling, according to the working of Him who was working in him mightily, he consents to labour afresh — yea, more painfully than ever — to travail in birth again of them. But all this was only to this end, that Christ might be formed in them; nothing less, or more, or other than this. He longed for restoration of soul in them, and that was, that they and Christ might be put immediately together again; that faith might be revived in them — the simple, hearty, blessed religion of personal and direct confidence in God in Christ Jesus; that, as in himself, the Son might be revealed in them; that, regaining Christ in their souls, they might prove they needed nothing more.

How edifying it is to mark the path of such a spirit under the conduct of the Holy Ghost! How comforting to see the purpose of God, by such a ministry, with the souls of poor sinners! How it lets us learn what Christianity is in the judgment of God Himself! The going over to the observance of days and times, the returning to ordinances, is destructive of this religion; it is the world. "Why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" as the same apostle says in another place. Confidence in ordinances is not faith in Christ. It is the religion of nature, of flesh and blood; it is of man, and not of God.

And surely it carries in its train the passions of man. Man's religion leaves man as it found him — rather, indeed, cherishes and cultivates man's corruptions. This showed itself in Ishmael in earliest days — nay, in Cain before him — but in Ishmael, as the apostle in this same epistle goes on to show. And he declares that it was then, in his day, the same; and generations of formal corrupt Christianity in the story of Christendom, the prisons of Italy some few years since, and the prisons of Spain still later, declare the same. "As then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so is it now." Man's religion, again I say, does not cure him; he is left by it a prey to the subtleties and violence of his nature, the captive still of the old serpent, who has been a liar and a murderer from the beginning.

The decree, however, has been pronounced. It was delivered in the days of Isaac and Ishmael, of Abraham and Sarah; it is rehearsed and re-sealed by the Spirit Himself in the day of the apostle Paul; and we are to receive it as established for ever. It is this: "Cast out the bondwoman and her son" (Gal.  4: 30).

What consolation to have this mighty question between God and man settled! And, according to this consolation, we listen to this further word: "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Gal. 5: 1).

All, surely, is of one and the same character. The Holy Ghost, by the apostle, is preparing the principle, the great leading, commanding principle, of divine religion. It is faith; it is the sinner's personal and immediate confidence in Christ; it is the soul finding satisfaction in Him, and in that which He has done for it; and such a religion as this, the believer in possession of this faith is set, as I may express it, next door to glory. The apostle quickly tells us this, after commanding us to stand fast in the liberty of the gospel, for he adds, "We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith" (v. 5). This hope is the glory that is to be revealed — "the glory of God," as a kindred passage has it (Rom. 5: 2). We do not wait for any improvement of our character, for any advance in our souls. Should we still live in the flesh, only fitting will it be to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." But such things are not needed in the way of title. Being Christ's by faith, we are next door to glory. "Whom He justified, them He also glorified" (Rom. 8). Being in the kingdom of God's dear Son, we are "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. 1: 12). As here, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, we wait only for glory; glory is the immediate object of our hope, as Christ is in us the hope of glory, and is the immediate confidence of our souls.

It is all magnificent in its simplicity, because it is all of God. No wonder that Scripture so abundantly discourses to us about faith, and so zealously warns us against religiousness. The "persuasion," as the apostle speaks, under which the Galatians had fallen, had not come of God who had called then; and the apostle sounds the alarm, blows the blast of war on the silver trumpet of the sanctuary, uttering these voices in their ears — "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump;" again, "If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law" (v. 8, 9, 18).

And in the happy structure of this epistle, as I may also speak of it, the apostle ends with himself as he begins with himself. We have seen how he told them, at the first, of the peculiarities of his apostleship, how he had received both his commission and his instructions immediately from God, and how he had then, with a faith that, was an answer to such grace, at once conducted himself in full personal confidence in Christ, and independently of all the resources of flesh and blood. And now, at the close, he tells them that, as for himself, he knew no glorying but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world was crucified to him, and he to the world; and he tells them further, that no one need meddle with or trouble him, neither fret him nor worry him, with their thoughts about circumcision and the law, or the doings of a carnal religiousness, the rudiments of a world to which he was now crucified, for that he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. He belonged to Him by personal individual tokens, immediately impressed on him as by the appropriating hand of Christ Himself; and no one had any right to touch the Lord's treasure.

Precious secret of the grace of God! Precious simplicity in the faith of a heaven-taught sinner! It is not, beloved, knowledge of Scripture, or ability to talk of it, or even teach it, from Genesis to Revelation — it is not the orderly services of religion — it is not devout feelings — but, oh! it is that guileless action of the soul that attaches our very selves to the Lord Christ in the calm and certainty of a believing mind. J. G. B.

A Brief Word on the Epistle to the Galatians

A Brief Word on the Epistle to the Galatians.

J. G. Bellett.

Bible Treasury, 2nd Edition, Volume 4, November 1862.

[1st Edition, November 1862 <04:165>]

I believe that we might shortly describe this epistle as thus — the "scripture" by the ministry of Paul now, as once by the voice of Sarah, casting the bondwoman and her son out of the house of Abraham.

The apostle, in order to this, first proves his warrant. And this he does to perfection in Gal. 1, 2 — showing that he received his gospel purely and immediately, from God Himself, in a way that admitted of no human admixture whatever, and that, under the full conscious authority of a gospel so received, he had already met the bondwoman and her ways in the person of the Apostle Peter at Antioch, and withstood her — thus making proof of his present ministry on a small scale, so to speak; or, like Samson, slaying the lion on his way to this Philistine den in Galatia, when he was to meet a host of them.

<04:166> And besides this, he makes the experience of their own souls, and the voices of Scripture touching Abraham and the law, his further witnesses. He makes them, as it were, seal his authority to do this great work in the name of the Lord. (Gal. 3.) And further, he shows that the time was now fully come, when the Lord had ripened all His dispensational actings up to this very point of casting out the bondwoman and her son. (Gal. 4: 1-7.)

Nothing could be more perfect than a warrant thus delivered, thus verified, thus sealed, and thus countenanced, if I may so speak, by God's own acts. The apostle, therefore, with full ease, and conscious authority, find himself in company with Sarah in Gen. 21. As she then knew her right, without leave from her husband or apology to anyone, summarily to demand the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael from the house, so does Paul here. He shows what the modern or mystic Hagar is — that it is the religiousness of mere nature, or a system of observances and ordinances, either imposed or revived by man in the churches of the saints — that formality of days, and months, and times, and years, which genders the spirit of bondage, and hinders the formation of Christ in the soul, and that spirit of liberty which He ever brings with Him. And the expulsion of this Hagar, this bondwoman, from the house of Abraham, or the churches of the saints, he demands with as full, unsparing decision as ever Sarah demanded the casting out of Hagar the Egyptian and her mocking child. (Gal. 4: 8.; Gal. 5: 12.)

But, if I may so speak, the energy of the apostle even exceeds that of Sarah. And this is but right. It is right that, as we advance in the unfolded ways and thoughts of God, and get from the time of Gen. 21 to the time of Gal. 5, we should find the energies and demands of the spirit still more wide and more intense also. We often see this. It was written of old, "Thou shalt not forswear thyself;" but it is written at a later period, "Swear not at all." * So here, the demands of Paul are somewhat larger and more intense than those of Sarah had been. She was satisfied with the dismissal of Hagar and the child, but Paul calls together with that for the removal out of the house of all that belonged to them. He will do what he can to get every vestige of their former residence there effaced. He would fain obliterate every remembrance of them — the very customs they once observed there, their habits and modes of living, and the spirit and tempers which they were nourishing and practicing, all these he would have to be gone, as well as themselves. He would even purify the place of the very air their breath and presence had diffused. Not merely the religiousness of the flesh would he peremptorily expel the house, the miserable and beggarly elements which kept the soul in bondage; but the works of the flesh also, its moral ways, its boastings and energies. Yea, and its conceits and highmindedness too — its despite of a poor overtaken soul, through the vain thought of its own security. Against all this, and more than this, he lifts up his more-than-Sarah voice, knowing no stint to the demand, that the bondwoman, with all that belongs to her, as well as her child, shall be turned out of the churches of the saints, or the modern mystic house of Abraham. And even in addition to this, he would have that house learn and practice the very opposite and contradictory habits — the ways of the Spirit and not of the flesh, the things that become the new creature in Christ, and not what was found inseparable from the flesh. (Gal. 5: 13.; Gal. 6: 10.)

*Just, as we all know from abundance of cases, the dispensational purposes of God are gradually disclosed more and more perfectly, so the holy demands of the Spirit are more and more fervent and intense. (See an instance of the first of these in Psalm 8 and 1 Cor. 15 )

He then gives us another witness of the importance he attached to all this truth, writing this epistle with his own hand. (See Rom. 16: 22.) For the defense of it demands more vigour than its publication. (Gal. 6: 11.)

He, in the next place, exposes the moral or the interested purposes of those who were leading them back to circumcision or religiousness, and is bold to present himself as one that knew the power of the opposite principle (see Gal. 1: 4; Gal. 6: 14), with all authority, too, as from God, speaking peace to all who clung to that principle. (Gal. 6: 12-17.)

And he closes by a suited valediction. For it is their spirit he commends to the grace of the Lord. (Gal. 6: 18.)

Such I judge to be the principal details of this epistle. And generally, I may say, there is a tone of peculiar decision and fervency in it. The apostle felt as though the citadel itself were in danger. A standard-bearer at Antioch had already well-nigh fainted. He had come, as it were, fresh from that sight, and he must grasp the banner of the gospel with fresh vigour because of it, and to step into the breach like a man.

It was a moment of deep interest, and he cannot but be alive to it. And though we are not in commission exactly as he was, entrusted with the truth of the dispensation in a special way (1 Cor. 9: 17), yet we are, as in the train of this great ambassador, to be of one mind with him, and give place by subjection, no, not for an hour, if the mine have been laid again that threatens the citadel.

The Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden.

Genesis 2.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend, vol. 8, 1881, p. 29.

The full act of creation under God's hand is detailed in Genesis 1. The work of creation is again given us here, but much more succinctly; the narrative soon passing, the general action confines itself to Eden, or to the garden of Eden, because there the scene of the great action about to be tried was laid, and all here is under the hand of the Lord God in a character of covenant relationship to man and the creation. The garden is shown us very particularly; it is described as the place of every desirable production, and as the source of those fruitful rivers which were to go over the whole earth; and Adam himself is put there "to dress it and to keep it."

Now all these were so many characters of the man's happy estate. He had provision of all desirable things, he saw his habitation a spring of blessing to the earth around it, and he himself made important to that garden from which he derived his enjoyments. He was made to give as well as to receive, and all these were but different features of a happy condition to a well-ordered mind such as Adam's. All this was surely so, but with advantages of so high an order it was needed that he should be told that he was but a creature still, and that the divine Planter of the garden alone was supreme. Accordingly the voice of a Sovereign is heard in the garden; a commandment goes forth, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat." But this voice is not a discord. It is all unison in the ear of an upright creature; for, act in what way or sphere he may, God must be, and will be, God — filling the chief room, and not giving His glory to another. A creature of a right choice must therefore rejoice in any witness of God's supremacy as in its own blessing. All this is but harmonious and consistent happiness; for in the command there is nothing beyond the necessary thing. There is no laying upon Adam any other burden. One command is needed, and only one is given. And this is therefore only another item in the great account of his happiness. There the Lord God, to fill out the scene of this happiness, celebrates for Adam a coronation-day, and a day of espousals; but here I must linger for a moment or two. The order of the passage is this (vv. 18-22) -

The Lord God first takes counsel with Himself about Adam's espousals.

He then introduces him to His dominions and sovereignty.

At last He celebrates his espousals, presenting Eve to him.

This is the order of his coronation and of his marriage, and it is an order which has its meaning. I believe the richest purpose of joy is the first in counsel, but the latest in manifestation; so in the substance. The Church was in the election and predestination of God before the world began; but other ages and dispensations took their course ere "that mystery hid in God" was made known. (See Eph. 3.) There is something of peculiar beauty and meaning in the order of this passage. It is not the mere progress of the narrative of independent facts; it is the design of a Great Master who knew the end from the beginning.

But not only so. It is not only the design of a perfect mind, but the well-known way of love also. The Lord God's first thought was about Adam's best blessing. The helpmeet at his side was to be more to him than the subject creatures under him. The day of his espousals was to be dearer to him than the day of his coronation. Accordingly the Lord crowns him; but that is done at once, and put out of hand. But that which was to be chief in his enjoyments was the fondest image in the mind of his Lord. His Lord pondered it. He made it familiar to His thoughts; spoke of it to Himself, because it was to be the dearest to Adam. This was the way of love. We understand it to be so. We like to think of the materials of a loved one's happiness; we turn it over in our thoughts, and thus is the Lord God represented here as engaged for Adam. The manner of forming the plan or taking the counsel is thus beautiful, and the plan itself was wonderful. It took the highest aim, "It is not good that man should be alone, I will make him an helpmeet for him."

Jesus the Son of God has found this to be so. His joy is provided for in the very way in which the Lord God here provides for Adam's. As we read, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son." How excellent a purpose therefore was this! It was making nothing less than the divine enjoyments the standard and the measure; it was saying to the creature, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." And not only in the plan, but in the execution of the plan. The divine original is copied. Adam sleeps a deep sleep, and out of his riven side a rib is taken, of which the helpmeet is made. As the Lord's helpmeet comes forth from His toil, His sorrow, and His death, and He felt and valued all this. He saw of the travail of his soul, as it were, and was satisfied. "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh," said his satisfied heart, surveying the fruit of his weariness and of his mystic death, and this again is divine joy. There is Another, we know, who will thus see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. It is the rest of the labouring man that is sweet. It is the bread eaten through sweat of brow that is pleasant. Adam had not helped in the forming of any beast of the field. They had not been quickened through any sleep of his. But Eve was taken from his riven side. She had been the fruit of his death-like slumber, and he therefore prized her. "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man." Not only as his helpmeet, his companion, but because he had been so necessary to her did he prize her; she was out of his side as well as for His side. The execution of the plan bound his heart to her as well as the result.

And this was divine joy, this is the joy of Jesus. This joy in His Church is His chief joy; she is both for His side and out of His side. Angels are not of the travail of His soul. But that which His toil and sorrow have won for Him, and which is prepared for the fellowship of His thoughts and His affections — this will be the dearest. The whole redeemed thing in heaven and in earth will surely be to Him the rest of the labouring man, and the bread that is eaten through sweat of brow; but the Church it is which is destined for His side, like Eve, as well as taken out of it.

Finally, we see here the unshamed nakedness of the man and the woman — happy expression of innocent intimacy. No familiarity which such hearts could indulge would be rebuked, anal so will it be between the true pair in the heavenly garden; no fear of being bidden away, and no shame in drawing intimately near. Innocence was the security between Adam and Eve, and all the virtues of the new mind will be the necessary, instinctive, essential protection of the ways of the redeemed Bride of the Lamb, in company with the Lord, while indulging her heart in His nearest affection.

Beautiful, wondrous chapter! I would ask myself, Are such the materials of my happiness? Adam communicated as well as received; Adam was subject to God as the creature was subject to him. And all these were but different parts of his happiness. Do we know this kind of blessedness  -  the blessing of imparting to others, and of being subject to God? and do we enjoy those mysteries which so tell out the ways of Christ and the Church?

All this is a picture of perfect happiness; but it is such happiness as God could sanction or impart, and Jesus Himself could share. J. G. B.

The Good Confession before Pontius Pilate

The Good Confession before Pontius Pilate.

John 18: 33-37, 1 Timothy 6: 12-14.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol 17, p. 120 etc.

The life of righteousness on earth, the life that is pleasing to God, must needs be a life of faith; because the great transgression has estranged God from the world that was made by Him (John 1: 10), and so polluted it that it cannot be the rest and portion of the righteous. Wherefore it is written, "He that cometh to God, must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11: 6).

Faith is therefore the principle of all righteousness, practical as well as personal: personal righteousness or justification is of faith, that it may be of grace (Rom. 4: 16); and practical righteousness or godliness must, as we thus see, be of faith also. Faith was thus the secret power that was working in all those who have ever obtained a good report (Heb. 11: 2). Excellent things are indeed spoken of them; but these were all wrought through faith, which is of the operation of God. Faith in Noah floated the ark, while as yet, for 120 years, nothing but the dry land appeared. Faith in Abraham inherited the place and the everlasting city, while as yet those things rested only in vision and in promise. Faith in Moses saw Him that was invisible; and in multitudes (whom time would fail to tell of) faith would have nothing but the "better resurrection." In all these there was found the simple vigorous exercise of the soul, believing the word and promise of God. No religion of their own wrought this in them; no effort at raising affections towards God and unseen things could have done it, but the blessed power (which is faith) of taking God's own word from His own mouth as true, of counting Him faithful Who had promised. And so too, above all, in Jesus, the first and chiefest in the noble army of martyrs — "the author and finisher of faith," faith rejoiced in what "was set before Him," and reached after it, though it lay on the other side of the terrors and shame of the cross; such terrors (Thy "face was so marred more than any man," Thou bruised Lamb of God!) as the heart of man had not conceived.

Paul exhorts his son Timothy "to fight the good fight of faith, and to lay hold on eternal life," in remembrance of this faith that was in the blessed Saviour Himself. "Fight," says he, "the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God, Who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Tim. 6: 12-14). Eternal life was to be laid hold on by Timothy, and nothing was to be allowed, as it were, to shake off his prey. As the brightness of "the joy set before Him" was never dimmed in the perfect faith of Jesus, though the cross tried His tenure of it to the uttermost; so was Timothy to keep his grasp of eternal life, let him forego what else he might. God in promise had set that before him; and that He would bring out in all its promised blessing and glory at the appearing of Jesus; and to that Timothy was to cling in spite of all the world. The world around him were contentedly getting their portion in this life; and many through the love of it had erred from the faith (ver. 10); but Timothy was to flee this in his pursuit of eternal life. Faith knew its object from the word of promise; and Timothy was to embrace it at every cost.

But there is ever to be confession as well as faith. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10: 10). For God is to be confessed in a world that has disowned Him, as well as believed on in a heart that has departed from Him. This is His present glory in His saints, and this their service unto Him — service, which (it is true) may try them here. Their faith, like gold, may be cast into the furnace now, but it shall come forth hereafter stamped with the King's own image; for it shall "be found unto praise and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1: 7).

When Jesus was a child, in subjection to His parents at Nazareth, He grew in favour with man as well as with God; for He was then serving as under the law, infinitely attractive in all that was blameless and good. "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man" (Luke 2: 52). But when called from under that subjection, to witness for God in a God-denying world, then the world began to hate Him; as He says to His brethren, "The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil" (John 7: 7). Then did His sorrows at the hand of the world (because of this His testimony) begin and take their course; every man's hand was against Him, while He sat alone. All His life then became confession, and innumerable evils at once and continually encompassed Him. His supports were the supports of faith, and the light of God's countenance, and the hope of "the joy set before Him." Thus was He throughout His ministry: but in an eminent sense was He the Confessor, when He fully entered into the character of "the Lamb of God." Previously to this, He had been either in controversy with the unbelief of the Jews, or manifesting the name of the Father to those who had been given Him out of the world; but His character as "the Lamb of God" was formally taken up at the supper, when, like the worshipper under the law, He presented Himself as the victim or offering, saying, "This is My body;" and in that character He stood and suffered, from the time of His entrance into the garden, down to His giving up the ghost on the accursed tree.

In the progress of His deep and mysterious journey, after He had thus entered upon this character, He was successively called before both the Jewish and the Roman powers: and before both He stands the Confessor, ready (as He afterwards accomplished) to seal His testimony with His blood.

And here I would turn aside for a while to inspect this blood, the blood of the precious chosen Lamb of God; for surely there is much in it of which we do not properly make our account. That blood was shed for the remission of sins, and it makes clean the conscience of the believing person. But what is found in that blood, that it should bear with it such a savour of rest and refreshing with God, and be of such virtue with Him for tainted sinners who plead it? It was, it is true, blood of God's own; as Paul says to the Ephesian elders, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which He hath purchased with His own blood." It was the blood of Him Who was Jehovah's fellow, without which indeed it had been nothing save that of a mere man. But this was not all that it was; it was the blood of the righteous One also — of Him Who had magnified the law and made it honourable, presenting Himself to God without spot — of One who willingly poured it out rather than fail in one jot of service and obedience to God. It was the blood of Him Who had finished the work that was given Him to do; Who had stood for God against the whole world, at the expense and loss of every thing; Who had before emptied Himself of glory, that God in the Son of Man might be glorified, as in man He had been dishonoured; and after He had thus emptied Himself, He still went down even to the death of the cross. There was all this in the blood; it was poured out bearing all this in it, and the savour of it with God was refreshing, "a sacrifice and an offering to God for a sweet smelling savour." Of old the joy in it entered so deeply, that "God said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake" (Gen. 8: 21). It was the blood of the righteous obedient Servant, it was the blood of Jesus the Confessor.

Confession is that which stands by the truth of God against the lie of man, and stands by it at the hazard of every thing; and this confession was witnessed by our Jesus. Throughout His life and ministry, it is true, it had been the way of the Son of God to hide Himself: for having emptied Himself of glory when He took the ministry of our peace upon Him, His manner was, to refuse to know Himself save as the Servant of God. For He had come in His Father's name and not in His own, to seek not His own glory, but the glory of Him that sent Him. But the time was to be, when He must openly stand confessed. Therefore, when adjured by the high priest to answer whether He were the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, He stood to the confession of the truth and His glory, saying, "Thou hast said" (Matt. 26: 64). But this was at the cost of every thing; for then they at once began to spit on Him, to buffet Him, to cover His face with shameless effrontery, and to lead Him off as their prey, saying, "What need we further witness? for we ourselves have heard of His own mouth" (Luke 22: 71, Matt. 26: 65).

And He was to make confession still more public than this — more as in the presence of the world's collected powers and enmity, — and more immediately too in the very face and shame of the cross. And therefore is it that this last testimony of the great Confessor is so singularly marked out by the Spirit of God as His "good confession" (1 Tim. 6: 13). But. I desire here to be somewhat particular, and listen very attentively to the character and bearing of this good confession, recorded as it is in

John 18: 33-37.

"Then Pilate entered into the judgment-hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto Him, Art Thou the King of the Jews? "

Pilate throughout this solemn scene was clearly desirous to quiet the people, and deliver Jesus from the malice of the Jews. It appears from the very first, that he was sensible of something peculiar in this prisoner of theirs. His silence had such a character in it, that, as we read, "the governor marvelled greatly." And what divine attractions (we may here observe) must every little passage of His life, every path that He took among men, have had about it? and what must the condition of the eye and the ear, and the heart of man have been, that they did not discern and allow all this? But it is ourselves, dear brethren; we have looked in the face of the Son of God and have seen no comeliness there!

The governor's impression was strengthened by every thing that happened as the scene proceeded: his wife's dream and her message to him, the evident malice of the Jews, and above all, the righteous guiltless Prisoner (though thus in shame and suffering) still persisting that He was the Son of God, all assailed his conscience. But the world in Pilate's heart was too strong for these convictions. They made a noise, it is true, in his heart; but the voice of the world there prevailed, and he went the way of it, though thus convicted. Could he, however, have preserved the world for himself, he would willingly have preserved Jesus. He let the Jews fully understand that he was in no fear of this Pretender, as he might, judge Him to be; that Jesus was not such an One as could create with him any alarm about the interests of his master the emperor. But they still insisted that Jesus had been making Himself a King, and that if he let this Man go, he could not be Caesar's friend.

And here we are led to see that there is no security for the soul but in the possession of the faith that overcomes the world. Pilate had no desire after the blood of Jesus as the Jews had; but the friendship of Caesar was not to be hazarded. The rulers of Israel had once feared that, if they let this Man alone, the Romans would come and take away both their place and nation (John 11: 48); and Pilate now fears to lose the friendship of the same world in the Roman emperor. And thus did the world bind him and the Jews together in the act of crucifying the Lord of glory: as it is written, "For of a truth, against Thy holy servant Jesus, Whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done" (Acts 4: 27, 28).

But still, as we have observed, Pilate would have saved Jesus, could he at the same time have saved his own reputation as Caesar's friend; and therefore it was, that he now entered the judgment-hall, and put this inquiry to Jesus, "Art thou the King of the Jews?" For as the Jews had committed the Lord to him upon a charge of having made Himself a King (Luke 23: 2), if he could but lead the Lord to retract these his kingly pretensions, he might then both save Him, and keep himself unharmed. With the design of doing so, he seems thus at this time to have entered the judgment-hall. But the world in Pilate's heart knew not Jesus; as it is written, "the world knew Him not" (John 1: 10; 1 John 3: 1). Pilate was now to find that the god of this world had nothing in Jesus. "Jesus answered, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of Me?" Our Lord by this would learn from Pilate himself where the source of the accusation against Him lay: whether His claim to be King of the Jews was thus challenged by Pilate as protector of the emperor's rights in Judea; or merely upon a charge of the Jews.

Upon this hung, I may say, every thing in the present juncture, and the wisdom and purpose of the Lord in giving the inquiry this direction is most manifest. Should Pilate say that he had now become apprehensive of the Roman interests, the Lord could have at once referred him to the whole course of His life and ministry, to prove that, touching the king, innocency had been found in Him. He had withdrawn Himself, departing into a mountain alone, when He perceived that the multitude would have come and taken Him by force to make Him a king. His controversy was not with Rome. When He came, He found Caesar in Judea, and He never questioned his title to be there; He rather at all times allowed his title, and took the place of the nation, which, because of disobedience, had the image and superscription of Caesar engraven, as it were, on their very land. It is true, that it was despite of the Majesty of Jehovah that had made way for the Gentiles into Jerusalem; but Jerusalem was for the present the Gentiles' place, and therefore the Son of David had no controversy with them because of this. Nothing but the restored faith and allegiance of the nation to God could rightfully cancel this title of the Gentiles. The Lord's controversy was therefore not with Rome, but with the rebellion and unbelief of Israel, with the "sinful nation." And therefore Pilate would have had his answer according to all this, had the charge proceeded from himself as representative of the Roman power. But it was not so. Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Thine own nation, and the chief priests have delivered Thee unto me; what hast Thou done?"

Now this answer of Pilate conveyed the full proof of the guilt of Israel. In the mouth of him who represented the power of the world at that time, the thing was established that Israel had disclaimed their King and sold themselves into the hands of a stranger. This for the present was every thing with Jesus. This at once carried Him beyond the earth and out of the world. For Israel had rejected Him, and His kingdom was therefore not now from hence. Neither indeed could it be; for it is written, "In Judah is God known, His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling-place in Zion. There brake He the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword and the battle" (Ps. 76: l-3). Zion is the appointed place for the King of the whole earth to sit and rule; and the unbelief of the daughter of Zion must keep the King of the earth away.

The Lord then, as this rejected King, listening to this testimony from the lips of the Roman, could only recognise His present loss of throne. "Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is My kingdom not from hence." He had no weapons for war if Israel refused Him. There was no threshing for His floor now, for Israel is His instrument to thresh the mountains (Isa. 41: 15; Micah 4: 13; Jer. 51: 20), and Israel was now refusing Him. Out of Judah is to come forth the corner, the nail, and the battle bow, and the house of Judah, and that only is Messiah to make His goodly horse in the battle (Zech. 10: 4). Therefore in this unbelief of Judah He had nothing wherewith to spoil the stout-hearted, and to be terrible to the kings of the earth, nothing wherewith to break the arrows of the bow, the shield, the sword, and the battle (Ps. 76). His kingdom therefore could not be of this world, it. could not be from hence; He had no servants who could fight that He should not be delivered to His enemies.

But this loss of a kingdom, which is "of this world," is but for a while. For Israel who once said, "Crucify Him, crucify Him," shall be brought to say, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." And then shall the goodly horse be prepared for the battle, Judah shall be bent for Messiah, the bow shall be filled with Ephraim, and the daughter of Zion shall arise and thresh His floor.

And the answer of the Lord to Pilate intimated this final recovery of His Kingdom. For while from the thus witnessed unbelief of His nation, Jesus perceived and allowed His present loss of it, yet He allows this in such terms as fully expresses His title to a kingdom, leading Pilate at once to say, "Art Thou a King then?" And to this His "good confession" is witnessed. For Pilate would have had no cause to dread either the displeasure of his master, or the tumult of the people; he might have fearlessly followed his will and delivered his prisoner, if the blessed Confessor would now alter the word that had gone out of His lips, and withdraw His claim to be a King. But Jesus answered, "Thou sayest that I am a King." From this His claim there could be no retiring. Here was His "good confession before Pontius Pilate." Though His own received Him not, yet He was theirs; though the world knew Him not, yet was it made by Him. Though the husbandmen were casting Him out, yet was He the Heir of the vineyard. He was anointed to the throne in Zion, though His citizens were saying, that they would not have Him to reign over them; and He must by His "good confession" fully verify His claim to it, and stand by that claim before Pontius Pilate, and in him before all the power of the world. It might arm all that power against Him, but it must be made. Herod and all Jerusalem had once been moved at hearing that He was born Who was King of the Jews, and sought to slay the child; but let the whole world be now moved and arm its power against Him, yet He must declare God's decree, "I have set My King upon My holy hill of Zion." His right must be witnessed, though in the presence of the usurper, and in the very hour of his power.

But now we are led into other and further revelations.

This "good confession" being thus witnessed, the Lord was prepared to unfold other parts of the divine counsels. When He had distinctly verified His title thus in the very presence of Caesar — i.e., of the world which as yet fills the gap, the way was opened for Him to testify His present character and service. "To this end was I born," says the Lord, "and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth; every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." His possession of the kingdom was now for a time hindered by the unbelief of His nation; but He here shows that there had been no failure of the purpose of God by this. For meanwhile He had come into the world for other present work than to take His throne in Zion. He had come to bear "witness unto the truth."

The Lord by this "good confession" was "witness to the truth," for His testimony of course was true. But this character extends far beyond this "good confession," and the Gospel of John is used by the Holy Ghost as the especial instrument of unfolding it. For in John we see that the Lord had been conducting His ministry as "witness unto the truth" from the very beginning; as is said in John 1 "the only begotten Son Which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him." He had been manifesting the name of the Father to those who had been given to Him out of the world (John 17: 6), and this is the same as bearing witness to the truth (see John 8: 26, 27). He had come to give His elect an understanding that they might know Him that is true (1 John 5: 20). Every one that was "of the truth," as He here speaks to Pilate, had been hearing Him. His sheep had heard and known His voice, while others believed not, because they were not His sheep (John 10: 3, 4, 26). He that was of God had heard God's word at His mouth, while others had not heard His words because they were not of God (John 8: 47). And hereby had been made manifest the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error (1 John 4: 6). He had come into the world that He might say, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me" (John 14: 6). He was the Good Shepherd come to search out His flock — to gather to Himself and to the Father all who were His — to bring into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God all the chosen children, and thus to fill up their full prepared measure; to bring forth sons unto God by the word of truth, to seal them with the Spirit of adoption, and to prepare for them mansions in the Father's house. The heavens were now to be opened; and the fulness of Him that filleth all in all; by the truth and through the Spirit, was to be prepared and brought. into them.

Such was the Lord's present ministry; for such was He born, and had come into the world, and had He been throughout opening to His disciples. As He says, "I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world" (John 17: 6). Though a King, and King too of the Jews, and to take yet the kingdom of the world, He was not now to exercise that power, for His title had been denied by His own nation. Israel's rejection of their King had now been sealed by that testimony of Pilate: "Thine own nation hath delivered Thee unto me." The trial had now therefore fully proved them to be "reprobate silver." The Lord's tarrying among them, if haply they would repent, was therefore now to be over. He could no longer go through their cities and villages healing and preaching the kingdom, but must take on Him other ministry; and that ministry He now fully and formally reveals saying, "To this end was I born, and for this cause carne I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth; every one that is of the truth heareth Me.

But by this we at once discern the different purposes of God in His dispensations by Israel and by the church; for the further development of which I have judged this passage of scripture to be thus worthy of more careful notice than is perhaps commonly given to it. It is not as a King holding His citizens in rule, but as the manifester of the Father, making us sons, as we have seen, that the Lord is now fulfilling His pleasure. Through the word and by the Spirit He is gathering all that are "of the truth" (as He speaks to Pilate), filling up the measure of His body the church, which is His fulness.

We thus from this scripture get further evidence of the distinct purpose of God in His dispensation by Israel and the church; a subject that we have often considered. But while we trace these things, may we know the power of them in our own souls more and more! Knowledge without communion with God would only expose our souls to Satan; may the Lord preserve us in so tempting a day as this!

And from all this we learn that the present absence of the Lord is to be interpreted differently as respects Israel and the church. As respects the church, it is gracious; because for them it was expedient that He went away, as by that they have received the Holy Ghost to be in them, to teach them, as the Spirit of truth, the testimony of Jesus Who was the witness to the truth, the revealer of the Father. But as respects Israel, it is judicial; and righteously so, — because it was Israel's unbelief and sin that occasioned it. It was by the wickedness of the husbandmen that the Heir of the vineyard was cast out. According to all this, when the Lord left Israel He turned His back on their city, leaving it for desolation, and saying, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate" (Matt. 23: 38). He hid His face from them. But when He left His church, He left them in the act of lifting up His hands and blessing them (Luke 24: 51). His face was towards them. The one action was judicial, the other gracious. When He left the Jews, He said, "Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him that sent Me. Ye shall seek Me and shall not find Me, and where I am, thither ye cannot come." But when He left His disciples, He said, "A little while and ye shall not see Me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father." When of old the glory departed from Israel, every ray of it, as it were, was gathered up and not a trace left behind, no present mercy remained (Ezek. 11: 23). But when Jesus ascended from the midst of His saints, it was but to give gifts to them (Eph. 4: 12, 13); and as He said, "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you" (John 14: 18). As to Israel, the Lord is now asleep (Ps. 44: 23); but as to the church, He is ever wakeful and active, the Advocate and Priest on high (Heb. 9: 24, 1 John 2: 1).

All this shows the different purpose which the Lord has as respects the church and Israel. The church during His absence is preparing through the Holy Ghost to stand in the glory of the Son; but it is the time of Israel's judgment.

And here I cannot refuse to notice the same distinct and decided teaching as to this, which we get in the parable of the talents (Luke 19).

The Lord is there presented to us as a nobleman who went into a far country, to get for himself a kingdom, and to return; who, previous to his departure, committed his goods to his servants to be occupied for him during his absence; and then on his return took account of them severally, but executed righteous judgment on his citizens, who had plainly told him before he went away that they would not have him to reign over them.

Now in this exhibition of the ways of God we shall find very clearly that the purpose (among others), of the present dispensation is to provide companions for the King in His glory, to give to Him those who shall share the throne of the kingdom with Him. The servants are distinguished from the citizens in this parable. The servants have their occupation during the nobleman's absence; but during that time the citizens are not within view at all. So is it with the church and with Israel. During this dispensation, which is the time of the Lord's absence, the church occupies the scene, and Israel as a nation are forgotten: there is neither Jew nor Greek; whereas after the return the distinction between the servants and the citizens is still as clear. The servants (found faithful) are called into the fellowship of the kingdom, and the citizens are punished for their rebellion. So again with the church and with Israel. The saints of the Most High are to take the kingdom with the Son of Man. They who have continued with Jesus in His temptations are to have a kingdom appointed them by Him, as He receives a kingdom from the Father. They who overcome are to sit with Him on His throne. The saints are to judge the world.

The servants of this parable are not the subjects, but the coheirs with the returned nobleman; and such are the saints, "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;" they share the dominion with Him. They are not after the nobleman's return to bring forth their fruit, but they will then rather reap the glory of dominion with Him, as the reward of their having brought forth their fruit to Him now in this time of His absence. "Because thou hast been faithful in a very little," it will be said to the servants by the returned nobleman, "have thou authority over ten cities." But Israel, in the day of the return of their once rejected but then glorified King, are to meet the vengeance. Israel are the citizens, for Zion is the city of the Great King, and Jesus is the King of the Jews. It is as a King with His subjects or citizens that the Lord is to be associated with the people of Israel, and not as Heir with His co-heirs. And their cry, their rebellious cry, "We have no king but Caesar," in the day of the returned nobleman, the day of the revelation of Messiah the King, is to be answered thus — "Those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before Me" (Luke 19: 27). The present absence of the Lord is not working their repentance; but rather the old rebellious spirit is judicially working in them till His return finds them ripe for the judgment.* And thus will that return bring the "day of vengeance" (Isa. 61: 1, 2; Luke 4: 18-21), "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jer. 30: 7); of trouble such as never was since there was a nation (Dan. 12: 1). In that day an alarm will be sounded, for it will be "a day of clouds and thick darkness" (Joel 2: 12). "In all the land two parts shall be cut off and die" (Zech. 13: 8). It will be a day that "shall burn as an oven," and, Who, as says the prophet, may abide it? (Mal. 3: 2, 4: 1†).

*The prophet Daniel is made to supply what is lacking in the completeness of this parable: he takes us into the "far country" and there shows us the very act of the nobleman receiving the kingdom (Dan. 7: 13) . . . . How sweetly is scripture thus in harmony with scripture. Surely every note is touched by the same divine hand, and what music is the whole of it to those who have ears to hear!

†It is equally true that His return will be with salvation; the day is to be one of mercy as well as judgment: of mercy to the remnant who are waiting for Him in the spirit of repentance; of judgment to the nation. Thus in the several passages above referred to — in Isaiah, the mourners in Sion are to be comforted then, and the full blessing to come upon them (Isa. 61: 2-11), — in Jeremiah, Jacob is to be saved out of that day (Jer. 30: 7), — in Joel, there is to be deliverance in the remnant whom the Lord shall call (Joel 2: 32), — in Zechariah, the third part is left in the land, and made the people of the Lord (Zech. 13: 8, 9), — and in Malachi the day shall discern between the righteous and the wicked, and those who fear the Lord shall be made up as His jewels, and the Sun of that day shall arise upon them with healing in His wings" (Mal. 3, 4).

But let us not forget that the nobleman has returned "having received the kingdom," and that the faithful servants have been promised their ten and their five cities. Therefore though the rebellious be thus judged, the scenes of dominion is not to pass away in the judgment. The cities have been promised as the rewards of service, the kingdom has been received by the nobleman, and this earth, to which the nobleman returns (for the place of his return is the place of his kingdom), must remain for the exhibition of that kingdom, and to be the scene of those rewards. And therefore we read in other scriptures that it is "all peoples, nations, and languages," the peoples, nations, and languages of this earth which shall be given to the King and His servants. "The Son of Man shall be given dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him." Judgment then shall be given to the saints of the Most High. "The saints shall judge the world" and shall possess the kingdom (see Dan. 7: 13, 14, 22; 1 Cor. 6: 2).

From all this then, we gather that this present dispensation is giving a family of children to the heavenly Father, and to the blessed Son of Man, companions in the glory of His throne. These are its purposes. By the ministry of the "witness to the truth," which is the Son, and "the Spirit" which is the Holy Ghost, the saints are made sons and daughters, for whom are prepared the mansions in the Father's house. They are all one in the adoption of their heavenly Father, equally and surely belonging to Him, "all fitly framed together;" but in the inheritance of the glories of the coming kingdom (for which they are now getting ready) they are not one, as it is said to them, "Have thou authority over ten cities," and "Have thou authority over five cities."

And in this is the perfection of the ways of our God: for in this will be found all that quiets the soul while awakening it, all that would lead us forth to service, and yet never take us from our sweet retreat, the full assurance of our Father's equal love. Oh, that the love of Christ may constrain us more and more to be willing servants one of another! This is the only real dignity, the only true praise. "I am among you as one that serveth," said the Lord and Master of us all. Whatever the outward aspect and bearing of our life may be, the spirit of service should be the hidden principle. "If we be beside ourselves" — what should we still be able to say? "It is unto God" "If we be sober," what should we still be able to say? "It is for your cause." No man liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself. This is the only true rule of christian action, this the hidden and only effectual spring to set all our movements right, as under God and like to Jesus.

The Glory in the Cloud

The Glory in the Cloud.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 6 p. 193.

The cloud which conducted Israel through the wilderness was the servant and the companion of the camp. But it was the veil or the covering of the glory also. Commonly it appeared in the sight of Israel only as a cloud, and the glory was known only by faith to be within it. But still the glory was always there, and at times it shone forth.

Such was that beautiful mystery. It was occasionally a hidden, occasionally a manifested glory. It was the servant and the companion of the camp, but it was, so to speak, its God also.*

*The glory in the cloud was that which dwelt between the cherubim in the holy of holies, the sanctuary or dwelling of Jehovah. The glory which served the camp under a veil was that which, without robbery, assumed all the divine honours of the temple.

Now, all this was Jesus, God manifest in flesh, God in "the form of a servant" commonly, occasionally shining forth in divine authority, and always entitled to the honour of the sanctuary of God.

Let us look at instances of this shining forth.

Israel had to be defended. The cloud changes its place and comes between Egypt and the camp, and then the glory looks through it and troubles the host of Egypt, so that they come not nigh Israel all the night, and this was doing for the camp the service of God.

Just so, Jesus. On a kindred occasion Jesus acts exactly as the cloud and the glory on the banks of the Red Sea. He comes between the disciples and their pursuers. "If ye seek me, let these go their way." He defends them; and then, as of old in the borders of Egypt, He looks through the veil and troubles the enemy again; and all this with the same ease, the same authority, as in the day of Pharaoh. He did but, as it were, look out again. He did but show Himself; saying, "I am he," and the Egyptians lie on the shore again. (See Exodus 14: 24, and John 8: 6.) Can we refuse to see the God of Israel in Jesus? "Worship him; all ye gods." He is the God of Psalm 97: 7, and yet Jesus. (Heb. 1: 6.) The Egyptian gods worshipped Him at the Red Sea, and the Roman gods in the garden of Gethsemane. And when brought again as the first-begotten into the world, it shall be said, "Let all the angels of God worship him."

But further, Israel had to be rebuked as well as defended, to be disciplined as well as saved. The same glory hid within the cloud will do this divine work as well as the other.

In the day of the manna, in the day of the spies, in the matter of Korah, and at the water of Meribah (Exodus 16; Numbers 14, 16, 20.) Israel provokes the holiness of the Lord, and as often the Lord resents it. The glory is seen in the cloud, expressing this resentment, a witness against the camp.

Just so Jesus in His day. When grieved at their unbelief or hardness of heart, He asserts His glory, His divine person and power in the midst of the disciples, and is thus, as of old in the wilderness, rebuking their way. (Mark 4: 37-41; Mark 5: 39-43: Mark 6: 36-51; John 14: 8-11.)

Surely, here again was the mystery of the glory in the cloud realized in Jesus, God manifest in flesh. That cloud veiled the glory, and was at once the servant and the God of Israel. The cloud was the ordinary thing; the glory was occasionally manifested, but it was always there, and in the temple. And is not Jesus in all this?

But I would look a little more particularly at one instance of Jesus as the hidden glory, alluded to above, that in John 15. In the parting scene on the shore at Miletus, we see the dear apostle full of affection towards the saints, and also strong in the consciousness of integrity. (Acts 20.) But there is no glory shining out there. Paul was a servant and a brother. He was a vessel in God's house. Others had been blessed through him: but he was, all the while, a companion, a brother, a fellow-servant, a minister, and apostle, and such only. No veil is to be rent to let him appear other than he is seen to be. There was no hidden glory in him, nothing to be manifested personally which had not been manifested.

But there is another parting scene where we get this. I mean that which is presented to us in John 13 - 17. We find there the tokens of the most devoted affection, as we may get in Paul on the shore at Miletus. Jesus girds Himself with a towel, pours water into a basin, and washes His disciples' feet. But with all this, mark the sense of His authority and of Himself, of His office, and of His person, which fills His soul. He knows Himself to be the "Lord and Master," though washing their feet, and "that he was come from God and went to God." (John 13.) Here is glory in the cloud again. He is the servant of the camp again, but when Israel's ways or words challenge or demand it, Israel shall again, for their rebuking, look to the wilderness again (Ex. 16: 10), and see the glory in the cloud. And so, quickly afterwards (John 14: 1-3), the same Jesus would render them other service. He would prepare mansions for them in heaven, as well as wash their feet while on earth. He would also return to take them home. But if the disciples, like the camp of old, be unbelieving, the glory shall shine through the cloud for their confounding, and Jesus will say, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip; he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou then, Show us the Father.

Thus, Jesus is the clouded glory. And very grateful all this truth is to those who trace, and delight to trace, that glory in its full brightness because of the thickness of the veil under which, in measureless grace, He hid it. He was the servant and the companion of the camp still, on whatever stage of the journey they were. Here was love — the patient serving love known of old to Israel in the desert. But it is the love of the glory. That is the joy, had we but hearts to take it. Paul's was love, patient, serving love. But it was the love of a brother, of a fellow-servant, of a man of "like passions," the service of a Moses. Jesus' was the love of the glory.

The glory in the cloud was the God of Israel. (Ezek. 43: 4; Ezek. 44: 2.) The God of Israel was Jesus of Nazareth. (Isaiah 6: 1; John 12: 41.) The Nazarene was as the cloud which veiled a light, which, in its proper fulness, no man can approach unto, though discovered by faith.

Here let me add that it is the business of faith (through the indwelling Spirit) to discover the hidden true glory, and to refuse the displayed false glory. How quickly Abram discovered it! (Gen. 18: 3.) How beautifully Abigail owned it in David, type of Christ! (1 Sam. 25.) How did the wise men discover it in a manger, after they had passed by all the false displayed glory of the world round Herod in Jerusalem! (Matt. 2.) And how did old Simeon discover it in the Child, the same Child in the temple, and passed by all the religion, glory, and array which was then filling that very same spot! (Luke. 2.) Faith was doing this, discovering hidden glory, all through the life of Jesus. Under the despised form of the Galilean, at one time, the Son of God was owned; at another, the Jehovah of Israel; at another, the Creator of the world; at another, the Son of David or the King of Israel. All these were different glories of the same person hid under the same veil.

How precious to Christ was that faith which rent the veil! The wise men, Simeon, Anna, rent the veil of infancy, the dying thief rent the veil of the cross. And see Mark 10: 34. The Lord was speaking of His deepest humiliation, but at that very moment the sons of Zebedee speak of His kingdom and desire it. The multitude speak of "Jesus of Nazareth" (ver. 47), but the blind beggar at that very moment speaks of "the Son of David" and prays to Him for help.

How precious is sweet faith as this! And I ask myself, am I rending veils in like power of faith? Do I see glory in the Church still? not doctrinally merely in the person of Christ, but really and livingly in the persons of His people? If I am delighting in, and honouring, a member of Christ under the veil of worldly degradation, such as men would neglect and despise, I am doing this ancient beautiful work of faith, rending veils.

The Glory of God

The Glory of God.

Rom. 3: 23.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 7 p. 5.

The path of the glory through scripture may be easily tracked, and has much moral value for us connected with it.

Exodus 13. It commences its journey in the cloud, on the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, when the paschal blood, in the grace of the God of their fathers, had sheltered them.

Exodus 14. In the moment of the great crisis it stood, separating between Israel and Egypt, or between judgment and salvation.

Exodus 16. It resented the murmurings of the camp.

Exodus 24. It connected itself with Mount Sinai, and was as devouring fire in the sight of the people.

Exodus 40. It leaves that Mount for the tabernacle, the witness of mercy rejoicing against judgment, resuming also in the cloud its gracious services toward the camp.

Leviticus 9. The priest being consecrated and his services in the tabernacle being discharged, it shows itself to the people to their exceeding joy.

Numbers 9. Resuming their journey in company with the tabernacle, the congregation enjoy the guidance of the cloud, which now attends the tabernacle, while the glory fills it.

Numbers 16. In the hour of full apostasy it shows itself in judicial terror in the sight of the rebellious people.

Deuteronomy 31. In the cause of Joshua, an elect and faithful vessel, it reappears in the cloud.

2 Chronicles 5. On the temple being built, a new witness of grace, the glory and the cloud reappear to the joy of Israel, as of old.

Ezekiel 1 - 11. Again, in another hour of full apostasy, the glory, taking wings and wheels to itself, as it were, leaves the temple.

Acts 7. Stephen, an earth-rejected man, sees it in heaven in company with Jesus.

Revelation 21: 9. In millennial days it descends from heaven in its new habitation, the holy Jerusalem, "the Lamb's wife," resting above in the air, from whence it shades and illumines the dwellings of Israel again (Isaiah 4: 5), as it once did from the cloud in the wilderness, or enters the second temple, the temple of the millennium. (Ezek. 43; Hag. 2.)

Such is the path of the glory, the symbol of the divine presence. Its history, as thus traced, tells us that, if man be in company with grace, he can rejoice in it; but that it is devouring fire to all who stand under Mount Sinai. It tells us also that, while it cheers and guides them on their way, it resents the evil and withdraws from the apostasy of God's professing people.

It as very instructive and comforting to note these things in the history of the glory, which was the symbol of the divine presence. And if that presence displayed itself in other forms, the same lessons are still taught us. The most eminent of the sons of men were unable to brook it in themselves; but in Christ all, high and low, unnamed and distinguished ones, could not only bear it but rejoice in it.

Adam fled from the presence of God. But the moment he listened to the promise of Christ, believing it he came forth into that presence again with fullest and nearest confidence.

Moses, favoured as he was, could not abide it save in Christ, the Rock, the riven rock of salvation. (Exodus 33.)

Isaiah, chief among the prophets, dies at the sight of the glory, till a coal from the altar, the symbol of Christ in His work for sinners, purges his sin away. (Isa. 6.)

Ezekiel and Daniel, companions with him in the prophetic office, with him also fail utterly in the divine presence, and are able afterwards to stand it only through the gracious interference of the Son of man. (Ezek. 3; Dan. 10.)

John, the beloved disciple, the honoured apostle, even in the very place and time of his suffering for Jesus, takes the sentence of death into himself at the sight of the glorified Jesus till He who lived and died and lived again spoke to him and gave him peace and assurance. (Rev. 1.)

These distinguished ones cannot measure the divine presence by anything but the simple virtue of what Christ is to them and for them. In that virtue they abide it at peace; and so, with them, does the most distant and unnamed one of the camp witness a scene already referred to. (Lev. 9.) There, all who stood at the door of the tabernacle beholding the consecration and services of the priest, the typical Christ, triumph in the presence of the glory; as also in another scene referred to (2 Chr. 5.), when the ark, another type of Christ, is brought into the house of God.

Sin and righteousness account for all this.

Sin is attended by this, as its necessary consequence — a coming short of the glory of God. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." This has been illustrated in the cases or in the histories I have been tracing. Sin incapacitates us to stand the force of the divine presence. It is too much for a sinner. But there is full relief. For if sin and incapacity to brook the presence or glory of God be morally one, so is righteousness and a return to that presence.

Sin implies a condition or state of being; and so does righteousness. And as sin is incapacity to come up to God's glory, righteousness is that which measures God's glory. It is capacity to stand in the fullest brightness of it; as those histories also illustrate. For in Christ, through the provisions of grace, or set in the righteousness of God by faith, all those whom we have looked at, whether great or small, found themselves at ease in the divine presence.

We experience all this toward our fellow-creatures. If we have wronged a person, we instinctively "come short" of his presence; we are uneasy at it, and seek to avoid it. But if we receive a pardon from him, sealed with the full purpose and love of his heart, we return to his presence with confidence. And how much more so, I may say, if we saw that he was pressing that pardon upon us with all the skill and diligence of love, and at the same time telling us that all the wrong we had done him had been infinitely repaired, and that he himself had good reason to rejoice in the wrong because of the repairing? Surely all this would form a ground, and be our warrant, for regaining his presence with more assurance and liberty than ever.

Now, such is the gospel. It warrants the sinner to entertain all these thoughts with full certainty. The wrong we had committed, the offence which Adam did against the love, the truth, and the majesty of God, has all been gloriously repaired by Christ. God is more honoured in the satisfaction than He would have been, had the wrong never been done. All His rights are provided for in their fullest demands and to their highest point of praise. He is "just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus."

Faith assumes this, and the believer, therefore, does not come short of the glory of God, though as a sinner he once did. Faith receives "the righteousness of God;" and the righteousness of God can and does measure the glory of God. In His righteousness we can stand before His glory. And that it can in this sense measure His glory — that faith in the gospel, or in the ministry of righteousness, can set us with liberty, or open face in presence of the glory of God — is taught in 2 Corinthians 3, 4; yea, indeed, that the expression of that glory can be had only in the ministry of righteousness, the full glory only "in the face of Jesus Christ."

God Entering His Temples

God Entering His Temples.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

A solemn, holy, subject, which the heart would reverence, while the pen traces it for a little through Scripture.

Scripture abounds with evidences of the intimacy which God has sought with the works of His hands. He has always been making a habitation for Himself, in some form or another, among His creatures.

At the beginning, as Creator, He formed His works, so that He Himself might rest in them. He saw everything which He had made, that it was very good; and all furnished Him with a desired habitation.* The Sabbath at the end of creation-work tells us this. Whatever measure of happiness was provided for man in the arrangements of creation (and that measure was indeed complete), still the Lord God was to have a place in the garden. He walked there in the cool of the day, seeking the presence of Adam.

*NOTE. — The Editor thinks it due to truth here to explain, that Scripture intimates no dwelling or resting of God on earth till after redemption, whether in type or in reality. Hence Exodus, not Genesis, first speaks of a dwelling of God with man.

Thus was it at the first, when the earth was in her virgin purity. She is quickly changed, but this purpose of God does not change.

The creation denies the Lord God a rest or. a habitation, by reason of sin that defiled. He must arise and depart. It could not be His rest, for it was polluted. We therefore at once see Him as a stranger in the world His hands have made. This was not His place of abiding.  He visits His elect that are in it, but He does not make it a home in patriarchal days, as of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He communicates with them in marked, personal intimacy, but He seeks no place on the earth. Still, however, He has a dwelling place here, in counsel and in prospect.

The seed of Abraham are redeemed from Egypt, and brought into the wilderness. Egypt was as the world, the polluted creation; the wilderness was as a spot outside of it, and there, in the midst of His people again, He finds for Himself a "holy habitation." (Exodus 15: 13.) The tabernacle is reared to be His dwelling, and He enters it.

But how, I ask, did He enter it? He had of old with evident delight taken His creation, as we saw; but now, the earth being defiled, and a wilderness around Him, and before Him, and under Him, after what manner does He take His place and enter His dwelling, in the midst of His people? Just with equal delight as at the beginning He enters the tabernacle reared in the wilderness of Sinai, as with His whole heart and His whole soul. The cloud abides on the outside or top of it, and the glory goes within — but goes there with an expression of earnest, delighted satisfaction. Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." (Exodus 40: 35) God, as it were, would have the whole of it for Himself — at least for a season — as at creation. He enjoyed the work of His hands, hallowed the seventh day and rested, ere He shared His rest and His enjoyment with Adam.

This is full of blessing. It is an expression of the early desire of God to find a place among His creatures. If pollution separates Him from the earth in its common, general condition. it cannot separate Him from this purpose of His heart. He will purify a people that He may still dwell among His creatures. He will give them His Sabbaths, sanctify them as He did the seventh day, and dwell in the midst of them, as in a garden of Eden.

There can be no more happy thought than this, that the Lord God purposes to be thus near to His creatures and intimate with them. And it is a thought, as we shall find from this meditation, that the heart is never for one moment called to part with. As we travel through the book of God, we take it up at the beginning, we it along with us on our journey, and find it full and fresh at the end. It accompanies us all the way, and is to be realized for ever.

Israel has to change their condition. They cease To be a travelling, and become a settled people. They leave the tents of the desert for the cities and villages of the land. The glory, according to this, has to go from the tabernacle to the temple. There may be all these changes in circumstances, but there is no change in affection, no abatement in the fervency and desire of the Lord of Israel towards His people.

A great interval also took place, and fresh provocations were given. As soon as the ark, the witness of the divine presence, had entered the land, the sword of Joshua began the work of conquest to prepare a "mountain," a kingdom, for the Lord. But Israel was untrue to Jehovah, and all through the times of the Judges and of Saul, there is confusion and defilement, and the restlessness of iniquity. The sword of David has, therefore, after so long a time, to finish what the sword of Joshua had begun, till at length there is rest — no evil or enemy occurrent — and the peaceful throne of Solomon, the throne of the Lord, is set in the land and over the people. And then the temple is built, and the ark leaves the tabernacle of the wilderness (or the tent which David had prepared for it, in principle I may say the same thing) for the house of the kingdom.

This long delay — this delay of many centuries, during which the Lord of Israel was kept out of His rest, and that, too, through the faithlessness of His people — works no change. The glory enters the temple exactly as it had afore entered the tabernacle. The priests cannot stand in the temple, just as Moses had been unable to, stand in the tabernacle — the glory had again so filled the house of God. (2 Chr. 5) And this was the Lord again seating Himself in the midst of His people, or entering His habitation there as with His whole heart and His whole soul.

In Eden He found His rest, because all there was "very good" — now He finds His rest in the temple, because "he is good and his mercy endureth for ever." This difference we see (Gen. 1: 31; 2 Chr. 5: 13); but still He takes His place, and enters His dwelling with the like earnest affection and delight.

After this He still goes on, and we still trace the same mind in Him. The fulness of time arrives, and God is to be manifest in the flesh. This great mystery bespeaks itself in Luke 1: 2. But what fervour is there seen and felt to wait upon it! What joy in heaven among the angels, what joy on earth in the vessels filled by the Spirit! The fields of Bethlehem witness this. Elizabeth, and Mary, and Zechariah, and the shepherds, Simeon and Anna, witness this. God assuming the manhood, manifesting Himself in flesh, entering the temple of the human body, shall be, in its generation, like the glory entering the tabernacle or the temple. It shall be a moment of rapture. The Holy Ghost Himself, the angels that are in God's presence on high, and the elect that are visited and quickened by Him here below, shall all be made to tell of the divine joy of that moment. It was no exile from the higher regions that we see in the glorious, eternal Son of the Father, "made of a woman," and taking flesh and blood. Unspeakable riches of grace indeed it was; but Luke 1, 2 forbids us to say that it was an exile that was then entering a foreign land, or the place of banishment. There is no finer glow of joy expressed in the whole of Scripture than, in these chapters, which thus usher in and reveal and celebrate the Incarnation. If ever the Lord God entered His temple with desire and joy, it was then; but this, as we have seen, He has always done.

Wondrous and precious beyond all thought, had we hearts to enjoy, it! But is there still more of this? Is this same story, full of blessedness as it is, able and prepared to tell itself out in still further numbers?

See the house of God, again and after this, in Acts 2. That may give us our answer.

The house is then finished, as the heavens and earth of old were, on the sixth day. The vacant, forfeited apostleship is filled, and the day of Pentecost has fully come. The glory again enters. The Holy Ghost comes into His temple now, as the Son, in the day of Luke 2, had come into His. The temples are different, but the joy in which God enters them is the same.

The living house of God, then raised and completed in Jerusalem, is filled with the Spirit; and like cloven tongues of fire, He sits upon each of the assembled saints. This was a new form, but it was as when the cloud covered the house, and the glory entered it, in the times of Ex. 40 and 2 Chr. 5.

But how was this entrance made? Like "a rushing mighty wind" the Holy Ghost came; and this style of covering, this expression of it, bespeaks the delight and fulness with which it was done. The full glory was there. The Spirit Himself, in His proper personality, in fulness and power, entered. And the fruit of this is shown all around, as we saw in the day of the Incarnation. The wonderful works of God were rehearsed at once, by the baptized body. They were glad, and praised God. They were delivered from themselves, both dwelling together, and sharing with one another all they had. Moreover, they gave witness, and that too with great power, to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

Surely, we may again say, if the Son entered His tabernacle of flesh, the temple of His body, in divine fulness and glory, so did the Spirit now enter and fill His house in like affection. Intense personality is here again witnessed. God is again near an intimate. He finds is a habitation ere in the midst of us, as with His whole heart and His whole soul — as the prophet speaks. (Jer. 32: 41) The dispensation may change, the tabernacle may have to give place to the temple, or one temple to yield to another — the temple of a human body may be prepared for the Son, the temple of living stones for the Spirit; but the fervour and intimacy with which God or the glory enters each of those in its day is alike throughout.

Further, however, still — for it is thus to the end and at the end — there is one other form which this same mystery is to take; but it takes it in the same manner, as from the beginning hitherto.

In Rev. 21, the millennial city, or, if you please, the eternal city, descends in full form and solemnity. It is a finished thing, perfect in all its beauty, ere it appears in sight. It has been built in heaven. The marriage of the Lamb was celebrated there, and there the bride had made herself ready. She is now seen in all her costliness and perfection, the habitation of the glory, as once the tabernacle of the wilderness, and then the temple of the kingdom, had been; the habitation of God through the glory, as I may express it, as once the Church on earth had been the habitation of God through the Spirit. (Eph. 2: 22.)

This city is now seen as "a bride adorned for her husband" — a figure which needs no comment to tell its deep meaning.

A great voice accompanies it, in its descent; and the voice cries, "Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall he his people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God."

This introduces or waits upon the vision which is given John of the holy city.

As the cloud of old filled the courts when the glory entered the tabernacle and the temple as the angels rehearsed the joy of heaven when the Son entered the flesh and blood of humanity, making it His temple — as the Holy Ghost entered His living temple with like witness of His presence in its fulness; so now, the millennial, eternal dwelling-place of God in the midst of men is shown as with kindred witness of the divine delight, and of the rapture of heaven. At the beginning the Lord God had rested in His creation, and walked with man; and now at the end, He rests in His own accomplished redemption, and pitches His tabernacle in the midst of men again.*

*See previous Note.

Surely all this tells us of the delight which He takes in the works of His hands, in His presence with His creatures, and in His nearness to them.

We may draw some happy moral from this holy and very blessed fact — the way in which God has ever entered His temples in this world of ours. If it has been thus with Him, how may we entirely trust Him for the forgiveness of our sins, and for our blessings in grace! He would not thus delight in His communion with us, and in His nearness to us, did He not also delight in the mercy He has shown us, and in our believing and ready and assured acceptance of peace at His hand in Jesus. The reasoning of Manoah's wife with her husband applies to this — and sweet comfort there is in that artless, but unanswerable argument of faith. (Judges 13: 23)

Can I, I may ask myself, see the delight of the Lord God in His creation, and then in coming near to man and talking with him — the fervency and freedom in which the glory first entered its tent and then its house of hewn stone — the joyous solemnity that accompanied the Son from the eternal bosom, as He came and entered the body prepared for Him — the earnestness and fulness of the Spirit filling His living temple — and then the decided and happy witness that was borne to the day on which the Lord God removed His tabernacle from heaven to dwell among men again — can I, I ask, survey these wondrous things, as they pass in succession before me, and doubt His delight in mercy? Can I question my welcome to that mercy, and the provisions it, has made for me a sinner, in Jesus? Among a thousand answers to this, let this meditation give one: — there is hindrance and dimness and cloud, I know; but they are in our eyes.

The difficulties the soul knows in living the life of faith may well introduce that life to us afresh, as being from God. Revolted, tainted nature ought to calculate on finding that which comes from such an One altogether contrary to itself. It is hard for a selfish nature to believe in self-sacrificing love. God takes such an attitude in the Gospel as man never put himself in. It is more than strange or wonderful; it is absurd; it is not to be credited. A man would be beside himself to act as God in the gospel acts. But what is all this but God's glory? The Son of God has loved me, and given Himself for me. For whom? A creature that had rebelled against Him, insulted Him, believed the lie that had deeply, deeply slandered Him, done all he could to dishonour Him. Is it to be believed? How can a selfish nature accept such a fact?

But all this turns to a testimony. It receives a seal from the very fact that man rejects it. It is from God, one may say, just because it does not suit itself to man. What a witness for it!

The Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, has to give it place in us. But He does so. In some, the love of God is "shed abroad," as the apostle speaks, so blessedly, that the soul is always breathing a free and gladdening element. In some, there is such a deep "rooting and grounding" in love, as he always says, that the sense of it constitutes the sure foundation on which the soul rests. (Rom. 5; Eph. 3) But what a privilege is it, that we are thus taught and encouraged to rest in the ground of love, and to breathe the atmosphere of love — and that love, God's! The poor, cold heart of some of us knows all this after its own poor measure. But it is in ourselves, and not in the love, we are straitened. And each of us conscious of being quickened of God, is taught to know that our condition, as thus quickened, comes from the great love wherewith we are loved. (Eph. 2: 4, 5)

God Manifest in the Flesh

God Manifest in the Flesh.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 6 p. 97.

Throughout John's Gospel we may perceive that a sense of the glory of His person is ever present to the mind of Christ. Whether we follow Him from scene to scene of His public ministry (John 1 - 12), through His parting words with His elect (John 13 - 17), in the path of His closing sorrows (John 18, 19), or in resurrection (John 20, 21), this is so.

This full personal glory that belongs to Him is declared at the very beginning of this Gospel (John 1: 1), and there recognized by the Church, conscious, as she is, that she had discerned it. (John 1: 14.) But, as I have just said, it is always present to His own mind. He is in the place where covenant arrangements put Him, and He is doing those services which care for the manifestation of the Father's glory laid on Him; but still He takes knowledge of Himself in the fulness of the Godhead glory that belonged to Him, essentially and intrinsically His. (See John 2: 21; John 3: 13; John 4: 14; John 5: 23; John 6: 46, 62; John 7: 37; John 8: 58; John 9: 38; John 10: 30, 38; John 11: 11, 25; John 12: 45; John 14: 9; John 16: 15; John 18: 6; John 19: 30; John 20: 22.)

The Spirit in the saint, after this manner, glorifies Him still. The saint may recognize Him in the place of covenant subjection, or think of Him in His sorrows and sufferings, but (like Himself in the day of His flesh) never loses the sense of that personal glory which is essentially and intrinsically His. Christ's own way when He was here, and the saint's present experience, are thus in perfect concord. And when we look a little at the epistle, we shall find something still in harmony — I mean in this particular. The Spirit in the apostles does not meet an injurious treatment of the person of Christ in the same style that He does a wrong dealing with the truth of the gospel. And this difference in style is very significant. For instance, in the Epistle to the Galatians, where the simplicity of the gospel is vindicated, there is a pleading and a yearning in the midst of earnest and urgent reasonings. So there are measures and methods recommended (such as charging, rebuking, stopping the mouth, 1 Tim. 1 and Titus 1), and not a summary process and outlawry at once, when Judaizing corruptions are dealt with. But when the person of the Son of God is the thing in hand, when His glory is to be asserted, there is nothing of all this. The style is different. All is peremptory. "They went out from us, because they were not of us." "Receive him not into your house." "Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God."* The Spirit, as I may say, holds the decree most sacred, and guards it as with instinctive jealousy, "that all should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." (John 5: 23.)

*The eating of herbs only, and the observing of days, if fully interpreted, are customs which depreciate the gospel, or affect the full beauty of the truth. But such things are to be borne with. (Rom. 14.) But our souls have the full sense of this, that depreciation of the person of the Son would not receive a decree in its favour after this manner.

All this about His full divine glory is precious in the thoughts of His people. We are, however, led to look at man in Him also, and through a succession of conditions we see in Him man presented to God with infinite though varied delight and satisfaction. I have, long since, traced Him in the following way, as man in all perfectness: —

Born. — The material, so to speak, moral and physical, is presented in Jesus as the born one. He was a taintless sheaf of the human harvest. Man in Him was perfect as a creature. (Luke 1: 35.)

Circumcised. — Jesus, in this respect, was under the law, and He kept it, as of course, to all perfection. Man in Him was thus perfect as under law. (Luke 2: 27.)

Baptized. — In this character Jesus is seen bowing to the authority of God, owning Him in His dispensations, and man in Him is perfect in all righteousness, as well as under law. (Luke 3: 21.)

Anointed. — As anointed, Jesus was sent forth to service and testimony. In this respect man is seen in Him perfect as a servant. (Luke 3: 22.)

Devoted. — Jesus surrendered Himself to God, left Himself in His hand to do His utmost will and pleasure. In Him man was therefore perfect as a sacrifice. (Luke 22: 19, 20.)

Risen. — This begins a series of new conditions in which man is found. This is the first stage of the new estate: John 3: 31, 32, intimates a new course in man, as here said. The corn of wheat, having fallen into the ground and died, is now capacitated to be fruitful. Man in the risen Jesus is in indefeasible life.

Glorified. — The risen Man, or man in indefeasible life, wears a heavenly image. The new man has a new or glorious body.

Reigning. — The risen and glorified Man receives, in due season, authority to execute judgment. Dominion is His. The lost sovereignty of man is regained.

Scripture leads us through this series of contemplations on the Son of man. And though I speak here of the Man, as before I did of the divine glory, yet I divide not the person. Throughout all, it is "God manifest in the flesh" we have before us.

We need to walk softly over such ground, and not to multiply words. On so high a theme, precious to the loving, worshipping heart, we may remember what is written, "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin."

Grace

Grace.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

When we think of grace, we think of our interests in Christ; when we think of glory, we think of our interests with Christ. The first subject is really the deeper, the more personal and affectionate. It takes us to the heart of the Lord; the second takes us to His circumstances.

And yet, it may be a symptom of weakness, if we too fondly and too exclusively hang over the subject of grace. And it is a symptom of strength and simplicity, if we find ourselves attracted by the thought of glory, and feel ourselves at home in it. Because, if we can, in such a spirit, deal with glory, and ponder it with ease and delight, it shows that our souls have already dealt with grace and are established therein.

These are true notices of the state of the soul, I judge. Still, however, as I said, grace is really a deeper, more wondrous subject than glory.

When the glory is reached, it will be the grace that will be abstracted, and be the animating subject of everlasting songs and recollections. And so even now. The soul that makes glory its theme without affectionate glances at grace will but weary us; while he who can affectionately triumph in grace, and makes that his theme, unequal perhaps to go beyond it, will still be grateful to the heart. Thoughts of grace may dwell alone in the soul, but thoughts of glory may not.'*

*Moses and the congregation in their song triumph in both grace and glory. Miriam and her maidens echo the thought of grace only. And yet Miriam's gentler strain is very welcome to the ear. (See Exodus 15)

The strongest, richest, happiest condition is when the soul can use all the arguments, all the incentives, all the attractions which grace and glory alike minister to it. This is Paul's state, characteristically I may say, in 2 Timothy. He urges his dear son to "be strong in the grace," disclosing some of the riches of it, and also holds out to him "the crown of righteousness." And this 2 Timothy was Paul's last word, his "swan's song."

Those histories in the Old Testament which illustrated grace are more our constant delight than such as exhibit glory, though this, in its measure, will depend on the state of the soul, and in some cases, as I said, may betray our weakness.

One is too disposed to walk in company with the watchful spirit, the self-judging spirit, the spirit which is full of care that a good conscience be kept. But our company should also be the recollection of the boundless grace of God. That should rise and gladden the heart abidingly. Our journey to glory should be taken in the sunshine that the conscious grace of God imparts to the way-faring man.

It is then we honour Him, and answer the expectations of His heart, and the purpose of His plans and counsels. For nothing can He value like His grace. Why does He promise that His eye and His heart shall be in the temple perpetually? (See 2 Chr. 7) Is it not because in the temple there was the witness of His grace? The place of angels did not afford His eye that object. And yet angels as creatures were more beautiful, and heaven as a place far more magnificent, than the priests and the temple at Jerusalem. But angels and heaven did not tell Him of His grace in the way that the temple did. And there lay the attraction. That was the secret why His eye and His heart affected that spot so intently.

The revelation of this grace of God, the style of the revelation of it, is as wonderful and different from all beside, just as is the grace itself.

The love of God disclosed in the gospel is a love which passes knowledge. And yet the story of it is told without glowing expressions to give it effect, or any help, as from language or description, to set it off to the heart.

This is a wondrous thing. Attempts are not made in Scripture to carry the sense of this love to the soul beyond the simple telling of the tale of it. It is told, but told artlessly. This is the style, the general style or method, of the Book of God.

Take one instance of this, from the house of God to which I have already referred. Take Exodus 28, where we get the dress of the servants of that house. These garments of the high priest, who was the mystic Christ, the Son of God serving in the sanctuary, are full of deep and precious mysteries. They express to the intelligence of faith a love that passes knowledge. And yet, throughout the chapter, there is not the slightest effort to produce an impression correspondent with that — none whatever. The dress of Aaron is simply hung up before our eye, without any description to attract attention to it or command the heart.

Is this human? Indeed it is not. This style is as much above man's, as the grace it unfolds.

And this grace in the sanctuary of old was the very way of Christ in the day of His personal ministry. He never used language, if I may so speak. His style had nothing of a glowing, eloquent declaration of His love about it. There was nothing of ardour either in manner or word to enforce on the disciples the conviction of His affection. But there was ample material for the heart to assure itself of that precious truth. All His way (passed in calmness, and, as far as could be, in silence) was a material which one, who could appreciate it, would have used for the demonstration of a love that thoroughly passed all description. Wondrous method of the God of all grace and all perfections! It is the office, the covenant business of the Holy Ghost, to interpret all this mysterious love. It is for Him to take Jesus and show Him unto us. Christ made no effort to persuade us of His love. That was not His way. The Lord of the old sanctuary, as we have also seen, made no such effort. Each of these passed before the eye of faith calmly, and, as it were, silently, but the Spirit and the renewed mind find ample matter to discover, and to feed upon a love that passes all knowledge.

And happy and profitable it is to have it vividly impressed on the soul, that it is in company with the God of grace we pursue our journey day by day, or take its successive and changeful stages. The 23rd Psalm would witness this. There the saint addresses himself to his journey, not knowing what may betide him, but in the assurance of this, that, be it what it may — want, sorrow, failure in righteousness, or conflict, nay, death-like circumstances and conditions — still God in grace is ever near to supply the strength, the comfort, or the restoration.

We get the same doctrinally, or as taught us by the apostle. Being justified by His death, we shall be saved by His life. (Rom. 5) It is not merely the grace of God at the cross that is to be remembered, but the grace of God in Christ's life in heaven that is to be used and enjoyed every day. The life of Christ in heaven for us measures and accompanies the life of a needy and defiled saint on earth.*

*The hidden thing is as real as manifested; the doings of the Lord in discipline of us are open; His pleadings for us are secret; one on earth, the other in heaven — but both equally real.

So in Hebrews 4. If the two-edged sword make enquiry and disclose the corruption in us, the high priesthood of Jesus is ever at hand to answer for them. As under the law, the ashes of the heifer were laid up in a clean place, outside the camp, for the constant use of the one defiled by the touch of death. The relief was ever at hand, relief provided by grace. Let what judge or accuser may raise his voice to condemn, he is always met by the intercession of Him who is seated at the right hand of God. (Rom. 8) The accuser is heard, comparatively, at a distance, but the Intercessor is seated in the place of dearest intimacy and highest dignity. And thus, in another form, grace displays itself, and accompanies us all along the way.

Here, however, I am drawn aside a little. I have just said that the voice of the accuser or judge is heard comparatively at a distance,, and not from that place of nearness and dignity from whence the voice of the Intercessor comes. But I do not, when I say this, forget that the accuser of the brethren is in heaven. I know it; but still I say he is at a comparative distance. The vision of the Messiah in 1 Kings 22, the opening scenes in. Job, the Lord's word in Luke 10: 18, the teaching of the apostle in Eph. 6, and the action in Rev. 12, all tell us that our adversary, our accuser, is in the heavenly places; but those heavens are a lower heavens than His Father's house, or the place of the excellent glory. There is a region to which the prince of the power of the air has title and access now, as of old he had title of access to the garden of Eden; to carry on his accusings there, as once he conducted his temptations in the garden. This region is called heaven, or the heavenly places, where spiritual wickednesses are. (Eph. 6)

This, however, is a lower heaven. This is not the Father's house. This is not the residence of the excellent glory. It may be the seat of power or of government, but it is not the place of the excellent glory.

And I understand this to be the place to which the holy Jerusalem descends, to take her connection with, and government of, the millennial earth. (See Rev. 21)

She had, however, descended ere she reached that spot, a witness that she belonged to a higher place, and so she does. She is more properly or personally an inmate of the Father's house, which is in higher regions, for the place of the family is higher than that of the government.

The marriage of the Lamb takes place in the Father's house. (Rev. 19) A marriage is a family action, and suits a family dwelling. But when the marriage is celebrated there, the Bride is introduced to the place of dominion, which is a lower place, because she is seen as descending to it.

Now it is this lower place, this lower place of government, or of connection with the earth, this region occupied by the Lamb's wife in the day of her manifested glory, which constitutes the heaven or the heavenly places of the principalities and powers of darkness in the present time. From that heaven they will be cast down: and then, in due season at last, that place will be occupied by the redeemed and glorified Church, the Lamb's wife, which is to have the government of "the world to come."

And I may add, the scene eyed by Peter, James, and John on the holy hill, was a scene laid rather in that place of power or of government than in the Father's house. And this I say for two reasons. First, the excellent glory or the place of the Father was separated from that hill (see 2 Peter 1: 17); secondly, the place of that scene was within the ken or vision of the earthly people, and so will the place of the holy Jerusalem or the Church in government be, but so will not be the Father's house, or "the excellent glory."

All this has value for us. It witnesses to us that the family scene is above the courtly scene, that the place of affection is higher than the place of power. But all is grace.

"Join thou, my soul! for thou canst tell

How sovereign grace broke up thy cell,

And burst thy native chains:

And from that dear and happy day

How oft by grace constrained to say

That grace triumphant reigns!"

Grace, like everything of freedom, delights to use its freedom. This we may see in such a scene as that of the eunuch in Acts 8. Grace also delights in displaying the variousness of its ways: this we may see in such a history as that. of David. The soul that is established in grace, as another once said, will be found rather reasoning from what God is, than from what we ourselves are. O precious occupation of the heart, to be going over and over again the grace and glory we receive from Him!

Grace and Glory

Grace and Glory.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

Preface.

The Volume before the reader consists of a collection of brief articles by a beloved Brother now with the Lord, which appeared in the "Prospect" and the "Bible Treasury." Refreshing and redolent of Christ, they are now reproduced in a form more convenient; and it is hoped that they may thus be a help and comfort to many more.

Grace and Glory.

2 Chr. 9: 1-12.

It is commonly apprehended among us, and very justly, that grace is the thing exhibited in David, and glory in Solomon. Grace had a very full exhibition in David. It raised its objects from degradation to honour, it comforted and sustained him in sorrow, restored him from wandering, and kept him to the end in safety. But when the time came for glory to shine forth, grace having thus displayed itself to the full, David delivers the throne into the hand of Solomon.

Each of these, grace and glory, has its own peculiar method. It is this which just at the present has drawn and fixed my thoughts a little. Grace only divides the scene with other principles, glory forms it all alone. Grace meets David in either his degradation, sorrow, or defilement, and brings honour, comfort, or restoration, leaving the struggle between the former and the latter things in measure to the end, and the whole a divided empire. But glory holds the entire scene at its disposal, and leaves the trace or reflection of itself on everything. It is not God bringing out His resources to mingle themselves with man's circumstances; but it is the supreme presence of the Lord forming the whole sphere of the action according to itself. This appears in this chapter. There is no darkness at all upon the scene abroad, nor working of nature in the heart within — no trace of man, or of his passions, or his miseries; the finger of God and the Spirit of God delineate and animate the whole picture.

The queen of Sheba is the witness of this. Her consciousness of what she saw tells us of glory being everywhere in the regions of the king of Israel — the stirrings of her own heart tell us of the absence of all the ways and principles of nature. There was nothing minute under her eye, that did not to that eye reflect the glory. As the stars of the heaven differ in their glories, but each of them is glorious, and lends something to the common magnificence, so here. There is the house of the king, and his ascent up to the house of God; but there is also the meat of his table, and the apparel of his servants; and the latter are glorious like the former — in other measures, it may be, but still equally parts and parcels of the glory. The glory was leaving its reflection on all she saw. It might be small in the great account, but still it was glorious. And because it was small, it was only the worthier of the notice of the Spirit-led soul, that delights to put honour on the uncomely member, and enable her the more fully to testify to us that glory was everywhere, even, so to speak, on the kitchen furniture — "the sitting of the servants Just as another voice of the same Spirit, anticipating the sanctity or cleanness of these same days, tells us of "Holiness unto the Lord" being now upon "the bells of the horses," and "of every pot in the Lord's house being like the bowls before the altar." For the glory had taken the whole scene into its hand, and there was nothing hid from the reach of its beams. It was a morning without clouds — there was no shadow anywhere. All was in the light. The very equipage of the attendants and their sittings reflected it. All was delivered into the liberty of the glory, and fashioned by the power of it.

But the kingdom within was as excellent in its way. If the day dawned around, the day-star had risen in the heart. There was no blemish of nature or of the flesh in her spirit, as there was no dimness or uncertainty in the scene around her. She was small in comparison with the king in Zion, but there was full delight and no grudging because of this. She trafficked for wisdom, and esteemed the merchandise of it above gold or rubies. The best of her land she offered to King Solomon, doing all she could to beautify the house of God's glory. Nothing that she had, could she esteem too good for him. O the blessedness of all this within and abroad! Glory abroad, leaving its memorial everywhere, the beauty of the Spirit's mind within, ordering the whole conversation of the soul, without touch or soil of nature! "Scenes surpassing fable, and yet true!" Scenes to be realized to the enjoyment of our hearts and eyes, and to the glory of our Lord, in the days of the kingdom!

Well is it that grace now divides the scene with nature's misery and defilement; and still well is that glory then will know nothing but its own creation, for light and its principles will be triumphant. The light which God has as yet brought in shines, it is most true, but shines in a dark place; the light that He will bring in by and bye, will be light everywhere, the day-dawn around, and the daystar within (2 Peter 1: 19). It is now the valley of Baca with wells of water, by and bye it will be the dwelling of praise still, unbroken, undivided praise. (Ps. 84)

"The Lord will give grace and glory."

Hagar

Hagar.

Genesis 16 - 25.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 8 p. 113.

Abraham had already received the promise of a seed; so, by faith in that promise (trusting God as the quickener of the dead), he was now standing in righteousness before Him. (Gen. 15.)

That promise, I may observe, had not mentioned Sarah in connection with the Seed, but there was strong intimation that she was to be the mother.

However, be this as it may, Sarah's suggestion to her husband at the opening of chapter 16 too clearly discloses the working of au unbelieving heart, and the principle of confidence in the flesh. For of course they measure each other. The more the simplicity of faith is surrendered and grace is refused, the law will either in its morality or religiousness be taken up.

For grace, or the promise, calls us out of ourselves, unto God and His resources. And Abraham had followed that call in Genesis 15. But now at the suggestion of Sarah he takes up himself again. He is back again in the flesh, or under the law, or becomes a dependent on his own resources. For these are all one and the same thing. Hagar is his confidence, and not the divine quickener of the dead.

This is very sad; but it is not destructive of his standing. Surely not. It betrays the bad mistrustful habit of the soul, and has to be rebuked and chastened, but Abraham is still the heir of God through righteousness by faith.

Very expressive, I judge all this to be, and very significant or typical also. For the law after this pattern entered through man's confidence in himself, Israel accepting this offer of it, and saying, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (Ex. 19, l*); as Hagar is now seated in Abraham's house through the same want of faith and, the same confidence in the flesh.

*And we see in Joshua 24 the same confidence persisted in after experience.

But there is much more of this same typical character. For Hagar's despising of her mistress is in the Lord's esteem highly out of place; and as He meets her in her wanderings, He knows her only as Sarah's maid, and sends her back with this injunction, "return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hand." She may get promises respecting the son that was to be born to her, but she is Sarah's maid still, and submission is her only duty. The law, too, has its hour. It may fill the house of God for a time, as Hagar and Hagar's seed now do the house of Abraham for fourteen years. But to the elect, or the heirs of promise, even the dispensation of the law still is, or was, only a servant. Sarah, likewise, may betray herself in other ways, in her undue impatience against Hagar, as well as in giving her to her husband, but still the relationship is unaffected by all this. Hagar is still and only Sarah's maid, and as such she must reside in the family as long as she is permitted.

All this is strong decided teaching, and teaching of mysteries, as I have said. For Hagar, as we know (Gal. 4), is the law of the old covenant, which, though it filled and formed the house of God for its hour, was but serving some great purpose of instruction or discipline to the heirs of promise. And all the time there was a great underplot, so to express it, in this mystic house of the patriarch. In a divine sense it was surely the chief thing. Ishmael is born and circumcised, and, being the only child and heir apparent, he becomes the object no doubt of daily solicitude. But with God Ishmael is but second. He appears to be principal in the scene, but he is not really or divinely so. Accordingly neither he nor his mother is scarcely noticed by the Spirit or hand of God after this, while they reside in the house, till the due time for their dismissal comes. Abraham, through human or fleshy fondness, draws him forward for a moment under God's eye, and he is circumcised as any purchased slave would have been, but neither he nor his bondwoman mother is the Lord's object. The elect Abraham and Sarah, or persons and things connected with them, are his thoughts. His communications are with them, and his discipline spent upon them: they learn and experience their value in His esteem, and others are made to know it also. (Gen. 17 - 20.)

Is not this, in like manner, a word of instruction to us? Hagar and her child were in the house all this time. But Sarah and Abraham are God's objects. As again I may say, during the age of the law, the house of God was, it is true, manifested as under law, the law filled it with a material of its own workmanship, but there was all the while a hidden action of the Spirit with the elect — the elect in the house were really God's objects.

These two stages in the way of the Egyptian bondwoman are thus very significant. Her entrance into Abraham's house as the mother of his first child Ishmael, and then her residence there for a season, have this mystic sense in them. But these things do not dispose of the whole history. We have still to look at her dismissal from the house.

Her child grew up to boyhood, and was, as I have suggested, no doubt, the object of family concern. But the current which had long run underground, or was known only in the counsels and promises of God, must appear and assert its course. Grace and the covenant must have their way and become principal in the scene. And therefore in due time, yea at the very right moment, "when the fulness of the time had come," Isaac is born.

The appearance of such a child was a great era. And soon was it found that he was set for a sign that should be spoken against, as well as for the joy of the elect. Abraham makes a feast, but Ishmael mocks over the same event. Here was the revealing of hearts. One taunts what the other glories in. But Sarah is bolder still. She will not merely take part in Abraham's joy, but she is for judging the scorners. "Cast out the bondwoman and her son," says she. Here was another heart revealed, a great heart truly. Here was an energy of faith which far outdid even Abraham's. Abraham would personally and quietly enjoy the child of promise, but Sarah will not only do this, laughing with divine believing delight over him, but is for cleaning out by a summary dismissal all that would disturb his full unrivalled heirship of everything.

This was indeed great-hearted faith. This spoke the mind of God. (Gal. 4: 30.) This was interpreting the gift of God, the child of promise, aright. This was putting honour upon that gift as it well deserved. It was not a mother's fondness, but faith's boldness; for shall the gift of God be kept merely on a level, on the same floor as it were, with the fruit of human strength or the creatures of man's resources?

This great-hearted faith of Sarah is very encouraging, receiving too, as it does, the full and ready sanction of the Lord Himself. It is very happy to watch this. It is well when the soul can, with Abraham, rejoice over the accomplished counsels and promises of God. But it is better, when we can be so bold in the faith as with this joy to cast out from our hearts all spirit of bondage and fear, every fruit of nature and every confidence save in the sovereign and glorious resources of the living God — God of all grace and salvation as He is — when we can refuse to hear anything or to see anything that may hush or cloud that goodness and power of God by which He has brought Himself unspeakably near to our hearts.

From the presence of such a faith as this everything must retire and make room for God and His gift. Hagar is dismissed, and of course the mocking Ishmael. Sarah will have it so — faith, rather, will have it so. And so will God; and Abraham, let fondness and nature be as reluctant as they may, must have it so likewise.

What precious mysteries may our souls thus feed upon while they meditate on Hagar's introduction to the house, her residence in the house, and her dismissal from the house, of our father Abraham!

But I would now also, for a little, trace the results of the birth of Isaac, of the appearance of the child of promise in the house of Abraham.

1. The immediate fruit of this appearance of Isaac, as I have been observing, is the dismissal of Hagar and her child. And, as I also have observed, this is a mystery. "When faith came, we were no longer under a schoolmaster;" but the exhortation now is, "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free."

The Spirit of sonship displaces that of fear. There must be no room in the house for two children of such opposite tempers. Since Jesus had appeared, the elect stand in the righteousness of faith and wait for the hope it inspires (Gal. 5: 5), and fear and bondage depart.

2. The future fruit of this great mystic event is the covenant of peace between Abraham and the Gentiles, Abraham on that great occasion taking the lead, and soon afterwards owning, for the first time, the earth as a beautiful or millennial scene, and the Lord God as the everlasting God, or the Father of the millennial age. (Gen. 21.)

In this way the immediate and the final results of the appearance or birth of the child of the freewoman are exhibited. But there is more to be observed in the history down to Genesis 25. Another thing is incidentally shown also — the fortunes of the outcast child of the bondwoman.

At first he is all but dead. The provision with which he left Abraham's house is all spent, and he is cast entirely upon God. But under His provision he grows up and thrives, as a man of the wilderness. There he dwells and has his occupation, and the prophecies which went before on him (Gen. 16) were made good. But in the principle and taste of his mind he returns, as far as he can, to his mother's native land. She gets him an Egyptian wife.

All this is significant. For we know that Ishmael is, mystically, the children of "the Jerusalem that now is." (Gal. 4.) And quite after this pattern of Ishmael, is it now with the Jew; for the Jew (or the nation of Israel) since the day of his dismissal from the house of God, since he ceased to be owned of the Lord in the land of his fathers, has been kept alive by the peculiar hand or provision of God. A full end has been made of other nations but not of Israel, and never will. For so runs the promise: outcast that people are, but not destroyed. They have, it is true, gone back all they could to the flesh out of which by profession through circumcision they had come; they have in principle returned to Egypt, or found affinity with the ways of an uncircumcised world; but there they are to this day, kept by the present hand of God for the coming purposes of God, all their history marking the energies of a divine hand over them.

This is all significant: the wilderness of Ishmael is as much mystic ground as the land of Israel. But, further, during this growth of Ishmael in the wilderness, the house of God has been enjoying its liberty. Isaac has filled Abraham's and Sarah's heart with laughter. And all this liberty and joy was as much divine as the preservation of the life of Ishmael in the wilderness — the one betokening the Spirit, the other the hand of God. God sanctioned this joy. He would by no means have it otherwise.

And, blessed to tell it, it was a worshipping as well as a deep personal joy; for it could associate itself with any sacrifice. The father and the son, Abraham and Isaac, loved each other with the warmest affections, but at the bidding of the Lord they can go to the altar as the offerer and His Lamb. And it was also a joy that could dwell in thoughts of resurrection, and lay its objects in scenes beyond the grave. And it was holy jealousy as well. It refused all kindredness or Ishmael's affinities with the world. Genesis 22 - 24 exhibit these qualities in Abraham and Isaac, while Ishmael is growing up no better than an Egyptian in the desert. (Gen. 22 - 24.)

This is, I believe, all deeply significant. Is it not the picture of what we in this age ought to be — in a spirit of full gladness and liberty before our God, but also in a spirit of sacrifice, and in a spirit of separation from the world?

Finally, as I have already anticipated, in a little time the scene will change to glory or the kingdom. Abraham or Israel will be courted by the Gentiles and their kings — the earth will be beautified, or planted with groves again, and the altar of the everlasting or millennial God (see Gen. 21) will be raised, while a covenant of peace binds all the families of the earth together; as here at the close Abraham's seed, as by Keturah, are sent into distant lands, with gifts as from a father, though Isaac was at home the heir of his estate! (Gen. 25.)

"Witty inventions," surely, divine wisdom employs to teach our souls with joy and profit! J. G. B.

The Heir of All Things

The Heir of All Things.

Hebrews 1: 2.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

There is a great secret in Heb. 1, 2. "The Son" being appointed "Heir of all things," takes His appointed inheritance as a Redeemer.

The inheritance had become lost to man by sin. Adam forfeited it; and it was itself corrupted, and under the burden of sin. If it be again inherited, it must be taken with this burden upon it, as others have long since expressed it. The Son, appointed Heir, is therefore to take it as a Redeemer, or as One that relieves it of its burden

This secret or mystery is suggested in Ps. 8, cited in Heb. 2. There, the Lord Jesus, the Son of man (who is "the Son," the "appointed Heir," of chapter 1), is seen with all things put in subjection under Him; but He is seen also to have reached such lordship as One, who, by the grace of God had tasted death for the inheritance.* He is therefore a Redeemer-Inheritor, and not a simple Inheritor.

*The παντος of ver. 9, the παντα of ver. 8.

Therefore, we may say to His praise, He will enter the kingdom as a Redeemer-Inheritor, while the inheritance itself will appear there as a redeemed thing. And in this manner, He alone will be glorified there, while all. around Him or under Him will be in blessing and security. And let me add, this mystery of the redemption of the inheritance is set forth in Col. 1: 20, where Christ is declared to be the Reconciler of all things in heaven and on earth, through the blood of His cross. And the cross itself bore witness to the same mystery, or His lordship of the world by reason of His death; for His royalty, with which His dominion and inheritance are linked, was there inscribed (and inscribed not to be erased), in all the languages of the I nations. There it was made known, therefore, that the crucified One was the King, that the cross was His way and title to the crown. (See John 19: 19-22)

All this makes "the world to come," or this inheritance of Christ, a new creation, that is, creation under new conditions. In the old creation, all things were "of God," it is true; but they were of God who created them. But in the new, all things are "of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. 5) All these will witness redemption; the blood of the Lamb of God, and not simply the power of the hand of God, will be traced there.

And this distinguishes the dominions of the Second Man from those of the first, or Christ from Adam. Adam received lordship of the creatures from the hand of God at once: Christ, the Son, the Man of Ps. 8 takes it, after having been made lower than the angels, that, as man, or in manhood, He might taste death for it.

But there is more in this mystery. The redemption of the inheritance by blood, as we have been speaking, is to be made good by power. Power will have to reduce or rescue the inheritance; or, in other words, to clothe the title of Christ with possession. This action is given to us in the Apocalypse; and it is an action, consequently, conducted by strength on the ground of purchase; that is, conducted by Him who is "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," and who had already been "the Lamb that was slain." (Rev. 5) This is to be noticed. And thus it is, by the action of that Book, that "all things" are actually "put in subjection" to Christ. As to "the Son," therefore, the "appointed Heir of all things," the Man of Ps. 8, the Lord of "the world to come," we see these things.

The decree which puts all things under Him is recorded in Ps. 8. That decree, commented on in Heb. 2, is declared to be not as yet made good to Him. The action by which this is accomplished (the manner in which all things are made subject to Christ), is given to us in the Book of the Apocalypse; and then, the results of that action are displayed to us in the pages of prophets and apostles; for there we see "the world to come," or "the kingdom," or "the inheritance of all things," is in the hand of "the Son."

Thus, "the Son" is the "Heir of all things;" and after this manner. and in this due time, the inheritance will be His, brought, into actual possession.

But, in the riches of His grace, He will have heirs of this inheritance together with Himself — as we read of the saints, "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ." Or, as we read in our Epistle (Heb. 2: 10), as the Captain of salvation He leads the sons to the glory; and as these Heirs had redemption by blood, as the inheritance itself has, this Captain of salvation is also a "Sanctifier," as our chapter goes on to teach us (ver. 11). For if He takes us up, He must take us up with all our burdens likewise. He must charge Himself with us, from the place of our ruins to the place of His glories. And this is just what He has done, as we still further read in ver. 16. "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he tool,. on him the seed of Abraham." He laid not hold of angels, as the meaning is, but He laid hold of the seed of Abraham. That is, the Son, who is the Christ, made the interests of elect sinners (here called "the seed of Abraham") His care, charging Himself with their blessing, and having respect to them in all His ways and doings, till He takes them into the glory, or into the inheritance of all things with Himself. In all the successive parts of His history, from the first to the last, He never lets them go. They are always seen with Him.

This, I judge, is the force of those words, "He took on him the seed of Abraham." And this is necessary to that great mystery, the Sanctifier making the sanctified joint-heirs with Himself of the appointed inheritance - and this we find to be so, as we read Heb. 1, 2 throughout. For we there find, that we never lose sight of ourselves while we are tracing Him from the beginning to the end of His blessed, mysterious journey. And surely this is a great and precious truth. I would notice this, as these two chapters give it to us.

1st. His incarnation.

This, of course, was the beginning of His path. But this we here learn took place, because of us. Because we, the children, were partakers of flesh and blood, He likewise Himself took part of the same (Heb. 2: 14).

2nd. His life of suffering temptation.

This, as I may say, followed immediately upon His incarnation. But all His life He went through, because of us. It was, that He might succour us in our temptations (Heb. 2: 18).

3rd. His victorious death.

This closed, as we know, His life of suffering temptation. But this death was likewise for us. It was, that He might deliver us who, through fear of death, were all our life-time subject to bondage (Heb. 2: 14, 15).

4th. His ascension.

This gloriously succeeded His death and resurrection. But in this He appears also for us. For He took His seat on high as the Purger of our sins (Heb. 1: 3; Heb. 2: 9).

5th. His present priesthood in heaven.

His ascension led Him to this service and dignity. But it is all exercised for us. He makes intercession in the tabernacle for us according to our need (Heb. 2: 17).

6th. His future coming and kingdom.

This will be in due season, after the present service on high is over. But on this great occasion, and in this age of the glory, He will still appear for us. As the Captain of salvation, He will lead us to this glory, that we may sit with Himself in the sovereignty of all things in the world to come (Heb. 2: 10).

And thus we see ourselves with Him, throughout all this wondrous journey, from the womb of the virgin to the throne of the kingdom. We see ourselves interested in every character which He bears, and in every action or suffering that He fulfils. He is the Incarnate One, the Tempted One, the Dead One, the Risen and Ascended One, the Priest in the heavens, and the Captain of salvation entering the world to come, where the glory is, but in each and all He is either with us or for us. We are never allowed to lose sight of ourselves or of our interests for a single moment, while tracking His path from the beginning to the end of it. He is "Heir of all things," but we are joint-heirs with Him, having been made meet to be so by Himself in the earlier parts of His ways.

We have a fuller, brighter view of all this mystery now, in the light of the day of Heb. 2, than they could have had who walked in the light of the 8th Psalm only. But this of grace and of God also. The light shines brighter and brighter, as we pass on, through the oracles of God. And the day is still to come, when, with an emphasis beyond even this, it shall be said, "O LORD, our Lord, how exalted is thy name in all the earth."

Herod and John

Herod and John.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 18, 1891, p. 154.

How significant of the heart of man it was when Herod, hearing of the works of Christ, said, "It is John, whom I beheaded." A bad conscience is a very lively principle. It acts at once. It takes alarm at the shaking of a leaf. It makes cowards of us all. So was it with king Herod. His conscience kept the image of the murdered man before him, and the thought that John was risen was something of hell itself to him.

The resurrection of a murdered man is terrible to the murderer, for it tells him that the God in whose hands are the issues of life and death has put Himself on the side of his victim.

And thus, beloved, will it be, as between the Lord Jesus in the day of His manifestation and the world. As Herod beheaded John, so has this world cast out the Son of God. And as Herod was all dismay and terror, when he thought that John might be risen from the dead, so will the kings of the earth, the mighty men and the princes, the bondmen and the free men, call on the rocks and the hills to cover them from the face of the Lord in the day of the revelation of His power. (Rev. 6: 16.)

This experience of Herod has therefore a voice in it for the world that persists in turning its back upon Jesus. The fact of His resurrection is hid from men; they go on as if there was no such thing. They eat and drink and rise up to play; but the crucified Jesus is risen. The Man whom men despise is glorified, and the day when this is manifested will be as terrible and insufferable to the world as the fear that the Baptist was risen was intolerable to the conscience of Herod.

I feel we may use this fact, recorded in Mark 6: 14-16, when speaking to men who go on with the course and spirit of the world as though Jesus had never been here rejected and crucified by man, and raised and exalted by God. God and the world are at issue about Jesus. He whom the world murdered, God has glorified. The judgment of the world must follow; and therefore the apostle testifies, "He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." J. G. B.

The Person and Deity of the Holy Ghost

The Person and Deity of the Holy Ghost.

J. G. Bellett.

Section 4 of: Musings on Scripture Vol. 3

My Dear Sir,

I felt myself much drawn to you from the little intercourse we had on Sunday, so that the apprehension, as it grew upon me, of anything that might prove a necessary hindrance to further intercourse, I need not say, was painful to me.

I have since further meditated on the subject that was then between us, and have committed the guidance of my mind upon it to the Lord; but I feel only more confirmed in the judgment which I then had, and I have remembered the words of the apostle, "Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them." — I desire now to write a little on the subject, as I promised you.

I believe the glory of God as He is, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, might have been learnt from the scriptures of the Old Testament. But I will instance only Isaiah 6. There the Seraphim cry, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts!" The New Testament scriptures show that Christ and the Holy Ghost might have been apprehended in the vision and audience, which the prophet then had: for, says St. John, referring to that chapter, "These things said Esaias, when he saw His (i.e. Christ's) glory, and spake of Him." And St. Paul, referring afterwards to the same, says, "Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers." (See John 12 41; and Acts 28: 25.)

But I instance merely this place; for I have no design to go into the divine testimonies to this truth which might be derived from the Old Testament. But when the work of the Son was accomplished, and He had risen from the dead, and was about to depart unto the Father, the full manifestation of God was made, for then the due time for this had come; and the commission to the apostles was this: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them unto the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

And this was just the time, as I have observed (as doubtless everything in scripture is perfect), for the revelation of this glory. The work had now been done by the Son which had been given to Him by the Father to do; and the Holy Ghost was about to be sent down to make that work effectual in and to the church. Therefore the saints were now to be brought into the knowledge of God, and baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

But so likewise is the church blest in Him, the benediction pronounced upon the saints formally and fully running thus — "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."

And from these things, if we had nothing further, we know Him "with whom we have to do," to whose name we have been thus baptized, and in whose grace, love, and communion, we thus have our life and blessing.

But there is much more than this. The scriptures of the New Testament throughout assume that which the form in baptism thus distinctly declares. There is not the constant repetition of the already declared truth in a full formal manner; but there is the constant assumption of it, and the presenting of it in its moral power.

I will just instance the passages which, on the moment, without an effort occur to me.

"For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Eph. 2: 18).

"And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints" (1 Thess. 3: 12, 13)

"And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ" (2 Thess. 3: 5).

"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1: 2).

"He saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour" (Titus 3: 5).

In passages like these, the truth already declared in baptism is assumed and shown farther out in its moral power and relation to us: and we learn that as saints, we are vitally concerned in the actings of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And we are saints by thus knowing God (having fellowship with the power and grace of our God) through His own actings — the only way in which He ever can be known; for man's thoughts will never discover Him, and will therefore leave him but a worshipper of idols still. And this should teach the church of God that she dare not recognise any one who does not thus stand with her in the knowledge of God, to whose name we have been baptised, and with whose blessing we are blest. I am confining myself here rather to the doctrine of the word concerning the Holy Ghost; for that was the subject between us. We did not so much speak as to the Deity of the Lord Jesus.

As to the person of the Holy Ghost, I would then further say, that a full revelation of Him is made, not only in the Baptismal and Benedictory forms; but also, though in another manner, by our Lord to His apostles in John 14 - 16, and there, too, I would again say, in due time as we may thus see. When our Lord spake those words, it was just after He had told His disciples that He was about to be withdrawn from them. Such a declaration filled them (as it well might, for they had given up all companionship with Him, not as yet knowing Him in resurrection) with sorrow; and in these chapters He brings them the consolation. And the consolation He brings them was twofold. -

1st. — He tells them that His present departure was not final separation, but that He was going away only to prepare a place for them in the Father's house, and that He would return and receive them to Himself. This was great consolation, but this was not all; for -

2nd. — He tells them that in the meanwhile, while He was thus absent from them, and abiding with the Father, He would send the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, to be with them, and that He would do wondrous and blessed service for them, such even as His own presence with them could never accomplish. What this promised service of the Holy Ghost for the church was, I will not here detail: it is graciously spread out before us in these chapters of St. John, as well as in the other scriptures of the New Testament. But here it stood revealed by the Lord to His apostles, that the Holy Ghost was to be with them, and in them, when He Himself had returned, and was for a while with the Father. Such is the revelation of the person of the Holy Ghost to the saints, such the blessed promise from the departing Son of God, that the Spirit of truth should come to make effectual to their souls, the testimony which He the Son had given to the Father, and to seal upon their hearts all the life, and joy, and power of that calling, which had been prepared for them before the world was.

Here the church rests — here she abides in peaceful assured joy, knowing that God in all His fulness is for her, that her security depends on no creature-strength, but that God Himself began, did continue, and is now ending her salvation; that what in covenant had of old been planned for her, God manifest in flesh had wrought out, and God the Holy Ghost is now making effectual, to the joy of all who believe. This is the blessed way in which, if I may so speak, scripture vindicates the Baptismal form; this is the way in which the name of God, there fully and formally published, is made known in life and power.

I would further say, that without this there would be the giving of God's glory to another. For not only is equal honour required for the Son (John 5), but the Holy Ghost stands with the Father and the Son, as we have seen, in the work which is doing for poor sinners, the divine work of salvation. The subjection of the Son to the Father, and again of the Holy Ghost to the ascended and glorified Son of Man, is abundantly exhibited in scripture, and more than exhibited, for we are instructed in the need of these things. The Lord says, "The Son can do nothing from Himself;" and again, speaking of the promised Comforter, "He shall not speak from Himself" (John 5: 19; John 16: 13); both passages intimating distinctly these subjections. And we learn the need of this wondrous and blessed economy. What could have cancelled the offence of Adam, the offence of a creature seeking to be as God? What could have preserved the honour of the throne of God while extending pardon to the seed of this Adam, but Jehovah's fellow being Himself smitten, and He that was in the form of God emptying Himself? This we learn was the needed way in which God could be just and the justifier of sinners (Rom. 3).

And what power less than that of God could make the work effectual to us? Having begun in God, are we to be made perfect in the creature? He that has been sent to be with the church, while travelling here in weakness and patience during the dreary night of her Lord's absence, is the Spirit Himself the Lord, who during that night is sought unto and trusted in to direct our "hearts into the love of God, and the patient waiting for Christ."

I know there may be perplexities in the thoughts of the saints at times on many of the great matters of revelation, and Satan is busy to corrupt the mind from the simplicity that is in Christ. But his advantages are gained, because he finds something in us. I am conscious of this. It is the god of the world that blinds the mind, it is the evil heart that departs from the living God. At the root of many of our difficulties there is a real, though it may be undetected, desire to keep God at a distance. Just (as has been observed by another), as with the children of Israel in the wilderness. It was not because the manna was not pleasant, for we are told it was as coriander seed, sweet as honey; but still they loathed it; and why? It came from the hand of God — it brought God too nigh to them. And in like manner, the world is at enmity with the doctrine of the cross; and why? It brings God too nigh to us; it brings Him to us in such an amazing light of love as overwhelms us; it is too much for the narrow heart of man; it rebukes his selfishness, and he seeks relief from it in the law of works. This is illustrated in the young man in Matt. 19. It was because he was covetous, that he was asking, "What good thing shall I do?" And so the Godhead of Him who now dwells in the church is a truth that in like manner brings God blessedly nigh to us.

I have not here so much spoken of the person of our Lord Jesus, because, as I have observed, this was not so much the subject of our conversation. But I would just observe, that the revelation of the Son, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, in the Godhead, is made to us also in the baptismal form; and in that particular (as in the other which I have above considered) all subsequent scripture vindicates that form, assuming the truth therein contained, and showing out its moral life and power. The work which the Lord has accomplished for the church, and the affections which the scriptures claim for Him from her, bring her before Him as God her Saviour. Some speak of a subordinate deity, of God in an inferior order; but the church knows no such mythology, as indeed I cannot refrain from calling it. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord;" and "the Son of God is come to give us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5: 20, 21).

But the church has also learnt the subjection of the Son — that He said, in the volume of the book (in purpose, before the world was), "Lo, I come;" — that, like the voluntary servant in Israel (and how voluntary, if in any sense He had been debtor as an inferior?), He has had his ear bored for perpetual service (Ex. 21; Ps. 40; Isa. 50). Blessed be His name for such unsearchable riches of grace! But all this only verifies His true" deity, and verifies the revelation that He stands with the Father and the Holy Ghost in that name which is God, unto which, to know, love, and worship Him, we have been baptised.

I do not desire, dear sir, to multiply thoughts needlessly on this subject, though (I confess to you) it is not grievous; for it is sweet occupation to go over and over again those ever blessed revelations of Him who is ours in purpose and everlasting love, who has displayed His full name to us. But my direct purpose now is to show you the grounds why I assuredly judge that the church of God must, in order to her fellowship, require a confession to the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. This is God, because this is the revelation; for without revelation of Himself He is not to be known. No thought of ours will do anything more than (at their best) leave us refined idolaters. God must witness Himself to us; and that He has done in His actings for His saints in the work of their everlasting salvation; which actings have brought out to them that blessed One with Whom they have to do, in Whose name they have been baptised, with Whose blessing they are blest — Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

I would add here what I have omitted (for I have followed my thoughts very much, as I was led, without order), that the Holy Ghost is not personally put before us in the way that "the Father" and our Lord Jesus are in the New Testament generally. For the Holy Ghost is now in the church, the life of her worship, and the strength of her service; by His indwelling, He is making known to us the glory of the ascended Son (or His Lordship), and the Fatherly character and love of our God. Hence all the Epistles open somewhat in this way," To the church. . . Grace, etc., from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." But in the Apocalypse, where the revelation was conveyed by the ministry of an angel, the salutation runs thus — "Grace be unto you, and peace from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven spirits which are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the First-begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth."

But I will not go farther, dear sir. I had thought to have sent you this on — , but I have been unexpectedly interrupted. You will, I trust, believe that I have but the kindest thoughts towards you. You may judge me, after reading this, to be narrow-minded and bigoted, insisting on that which I have learnt by tradition from my fathers. But I do pray that this may not be your last thought upon it, but that you may stand in the confession of the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with those who have, in every age of the Church since Jesus ascended and sent down the Holy Ghost, approved themselves as the saints of God, and witnessed and lived for their Lord in this evil world, and who have gathered all their joy and strength for present service, and all their confidence and ground of hope for future rest and glory, from the blessed and gracious God who has thus revealed His full name to them, and given Himself to them and for them. Yours, very truly (in the remembrance that Jesus is my Lord), J. G. B.

Divine Intimacy

Divine Intimacy.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 14, 1887, p. 302.

The intimacy which the Lord has sought with His creature man is in a very blessed way evidenced throughout Scripture. It may have had different expressions or forms, but still it was intimacy. In patriarchal days it was personal. The Lord God walked in the midst of the human family, appearing personally to His elect — not so much employing prophets or angels, but mixing Himself in the action as it proceeded. (See Genesis.) In the times of Israel He was not so much in the human guise as before, but in mystic dress; still, however, He was near them. The glory in the cloud, the Lord in the burning bush, the armed Captain under Jericho, and then the glory filling the temple, or seating itself between the cherubim, all tell this nearness of God to elect man. The God of Israel seen by them on the sapphire throne, and the promise of His own lips to the house built in the midst of Israel — "Mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually," all this in like manner witness this desired and proposed intimacy.

Then, in the progress of His wisdom and counsels, the actual assumption of manhood, this is the witness of witnesses to this precious truth. I need not dwell on it. As we say, it speaks for itself.

But what at this time has the more strongly drawn my mind is, the intimacy that He so wondrously and graciously seeks and has provided for, and secured, in this our present age or dispensation. He has given the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of truth is in us. The Comforter abides with us for ever. Our bodies are nothing less than His temples or dwelling-places. And the Son has borne Himself to heaven as. our Head and Representative, and we are in Him and with Him. No form of intimacy so wonderful as this, and none more true and real. If personally the Lord God would take a calf or a cake, as pledges of hospitality to a travelling man, from the hand of Abraham; if in the sight of the congregation He would let the glory dwell, and fill the temple courts, to show His joy in His new-found dwelling with Israel; if in the manhood of Jesus of Nazareth He would sit at a well with an elect sinner, or let another press His bosom at supper, and ask Him about the secrets that were lodged there; in this our very hour He has us, in the thoughts and purposes of His own heart, up in heaven with Himself, and the Holy Ghost is here in the midst of all the thoughts and purposes of our hearts. Is this intimacy of a feebler nature? Is this a retracing of His steps, and going back again into His own perfections and glories, or amid the principalities and dominions of angels? No. at is pursuing His former purpose of intimacy, only in a further stage, till He perfect it in the kingdom; for this indwelling of the Spirit tells us that in every pulse of affection that beats, in every duty or service that is fulfilled or performed, the thought of the Lord should mix itself; as in the details of precepts in the epistles we find it, the Lord, love to Him, and respect to His authority, being brought in as the animating and ruling principle. Is this reserve? Is this withdrawal of Himself? This seeing Him, and owning of Him in all human relations and social duties, is this the symptom of a God in the thick darkness, a God afar off? Blessed thought, it is the very reverse. It is only a richer pursuit of that same desire for intimacy with us which broke forth in its infant. form in the Book of Genesis, and which is to bloom in its perfection in the kingdom.

It has been sweetly described by another, that the divine intimacy was preserved by Jesus  - risen, as well as by Jesus in the flesh. This appears from His preparing the dinner on the sea-shore Himself, eating in company with His disciples (John 21); for He would with Himself now invest or clothe our spirits. He would relieve our consciences with a peace which He has made and wrought out for us Himself to perfection; He would satisfy our hearts with attractions that are divine and ineffable, and fitted to teach us, that the half could not be told, because they are the attractions which nothing less than He Himself puts forth; and He would, as I have already said, bring Himself in amid all our occupations and relationships, that the recollection of Him and His authority and His grace may sanctify as well as bless the whole. It is faith that enters into this purpose of God and enjoys it. Faith apprehends a peace made by Himself, and therefore perfect, and clothes the conscience with it; faith apprehends the love and the other blessed attractions that are in Him, and gives the heart as a dwelling-place an unspeakably happy dwelling-place in Him; faith knows Him to be no stranger to the smallest action, and therefore invests the whole course of human life with the sense of His authority and His sufficiency, and His gracious and desired fellowship with it all, with all the joys and sorrows and doings and circumstances of His people, as He says, "I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is," taking knowledge thus of the place and character of our abode. "Send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: he lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea-side."

And where does this intimacy appear at the end? In the Apocalypse redeemed man takes the place of . . . nearness to the throne. The tabernacle of God is with men, and the Lamb's bride becomes the habitation of the glory. J. G. B.

Isaiah 52: 13-53

Isaiah 52: 13-53.

J. G. Bellett.

Section 6 of: Musings on Scripture, Vol. 3

Until we discover the distinctness and order of the parts of any piece of writing, we are not in a position for interpreting it in detail. All careful readers of the scriptures must have found that the arrangement of the several books into chapters and verses, as adopted in the Authorised Version, does not serve the most important end of arrangement at all, rather the reverse. For they appear to have been designed more for the convenience of occasional readings or of reference, than to assist in the exposition of the scriptures. But to assist in the exposition of the book itself is surely the most important end of arrangement and division.

In the historical books of the Bible, for instance, the order clearly evinces itself. We there at once perceive where a narrative begins and where it closes, and the connection of all its parts; but in the prophets it is not so. In them there are no clear and decisive marks given to us, at least very generally: we must therefore be at some pains to discover the order and make the arrangement ourselves. It will then be enquired, how are we to do this? Generally, I would say, let the prophets be read throughout and in order, as entire pieces, and then let attention be given and judgment exercised upon them, as on any book, to discover their distinct interruption and periods. Assuredly these holy and beauteous oracles of our God are worthy thus to be entertained; and surely an indolent and careless reading of them will be rebuked of Him by leaving us in contracted and indistinct apprehensions of His glory to which they all testify.

While, however, I would urge, upon the consciences of my fellow-disciples, the duty of bestowing labours such as these on the oracles of God, I would clearly recognise that knowledge of God Himself (such as he who is spiritual alone can have) is our best help in studying the details of His holy book. The friendship of the Lord Jesus lets us into His secrets — into the divine counsels. "I have called you friends," says the Saviour, "for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you." Communion with Him makes us clear and able witnesses to Him; for He further says, "Ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning." Human learning has its uses, I deny not; but, as it is an attractive thing, and imposes much on our poor hearts, which ever naturally relish that which is of man, and not that which is of God, we must be careful that we do not over-value it. It is the church which is made the pillar and ground of the truth, and not the schools of science and literature; and the church is thus the witness and upholder of truth, not as being endowed with human learning, but as having "the mind of Christ," and "an unction from the Holy One."

It was not because there was in them a lack of intellectual power or of literary attainments, that the apostle rebuked the disciples for being still but learners, when they ought to have been teachers of divine mysteries. The failure was of a moral character, or he would not have rebuked it. They were dull of hearing, because their souls had not taken that interest in the glory of the Lord Jesus, which, had they loved Him better, they would have taken; and therefore it is, that He presents this failure in knowledge as the first step of fearful apostasy, and of final curse and rejection (see Heb. 5: 11 - 6: 8).

On the principle, then, of ascertaining the limits of the distinct strains of the prophets, before we attempt to interpret them in detail, looking at the 52nd, 53rd, and 54th, of Isaiah, we perceive at once that the prophet is introduced to a new subject at the 13th verse of the 52nd chapter; that the same subject is continued throughout the 53rd chapter; but that it does not occupy him in the 54th chapter. We therefore conclude that Isa. 52: 13 - 53, is one distinct strain of prophecy, and thus we are in a position for interpreting this portion in detail.

In beginning to do this, we must enquire what form it takes, into what subordinate parts it naturally distributes itself, and what title the whole subject will properly bear.

Doing this, by reading it from the beginning to the end (over remembering with reverence, and yet to our unspeakable comfort, that it is the word of the living God — our God, in the sure mercies of His dear Son), it at once presents itself to us in the following character: — it exhibits Messiah and the saints alternately or interchangeably contemplating the suffering Messiah, and passing their several judgments upon that mysterious blessed object, and we may entitle it, "Messiah in His sufferings."

Isa. 52: 13-15. "Behold, My servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonished at Thee; His visage was so marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men: so shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at Him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Jehovah, in these verses, looking at Jesus' smitten form, and affectingly presenting it to our view, celebrates that glory to which all this humiliation and suffering were to conduct Him, according as it is written of Him (Phil. 2: 8), "And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore also God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." For this was the rule of Messiah's glory, as He said, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit;" and so all scripture teaches, that glory now must take as it were a resurrection form, just as life must do. For as the life and inheritance of those whom Jesus represented, and for whom Jesus gave Himself up, according to the everlasting covenant, had been both forfeited, and death and the curse been induced upon them; Jesus, in regaining both, must pass meritoriously through death, and get for Himself and His saints a condition of life and a kingdom and glory, only by destroying thus, through death, him who had the power of death. And this He did to secure to those who believe on Him, a life that shall prove itself stronger than death, and "a kingdom that cannot be moved" (John 11: 25, 26, Heb. 12: 28).

The day of the Lord Christ, when He shall take to Himself "the heathen for His inheritance," and be exalted as ":King of kings," is here anticipated by Jehovah, when "to Him whom man despiseth, to Him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes shall also worship," — when "the kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents, the king of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts, yea, all kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him."

Isa. 53: 1-6. "Who hath believed our report, or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground; He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see aim there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

The remnant here addressing themselves to the same blessed object point at once, not to the result of Messiah's sufferings, as Jehovah had done, but to their cause, their own deep iniquity and many transgressions. They begin by rehearsing the common unbelief, and intimate this to arise from the resistance which the pride of fallen man naturally offered to the despised form of Jesus of Nazareth, to the humiliating and rebuking sign of the carpenter's son (see Matt. 13: 55). And they confess that they had naturally partaken of the same spirit of unbelief (Eph. 2: 2). In the progress of their meditations they utter the memory of the Lord's wondrous love; and after again taking shame to themselves for their unbelief, they at length, in the sweet assurance of faith, confess their sin on the head of this worthy Lamb of God, finding peace in His blood (Eph. 2: 16, Heb. 12: 24).

Before we proceed with our subject, we may here observe the suitableness of those respective judgments of Jehovah and of the remnant, while looking by turns upon the Messiah's griefs. Jehovah looks at them as intimating the glory in which they were all to result; for the covenant between Jehovah and the Christ was surely on this wise (but oh! for the spirit of unshod worshippers while standing here), — the Son emptied Himself of all, not acting as for Himself, but as Jehovah's servant, and as such endured the cross; and then by the covenant He took back all,* and therefore was it fitting that Jehovah then pledged in covenant promises to the suffering Christ, looking at His sufferings, should celebrate the day of those promises when they shall be manifested in the kingdom as the people of Christ, and HE shall be declared the heir of all things. So was it alike suitable to the saints, in looking on these sufferings, to be reminded of their many stains and wrinkles; for to purge them away, and to give them beauty and acceptance in the eyes of their Lord, were all those sorrows borne. "He was made sin for us Who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

*But He took back all, not for Himself only, but for His saints also; for through the riches of His infinite grace He has associated them with Himself in all the blessed fruit of His covenant sufferings. Had He retained any thing, the saints would have got nothing; but He fully emptied Himself, He had resurrection power in Himself (John 10: 18), but waited to be brought from the grave by the Father, through the blood of the everlasting covenant (Heb. 13: 20), and then His resurrection, and all the glory that it pledged, is ours as well as His.

Isa. 53: 7, 8. "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people was He stricken."

Here Jehovah resumes the subject. He justifies Messiah in His conduct throughout all His bitter agony; that He had therein conducted Himself, as towards God, without one rebellious murmur (Mark 14: 26); as towards man, without a returning threat (1 Peter 2: 23). But the Father rehearses, that though He was thus worthy of all justification, yet (being made sin) He was treated as unworthy, left without righteous judgment: none of all who had been taught by Him in the synagogue and in the temple, or who had ever heard Him, though they knew what He said unto them, would now stand for Him (John 18: 20-22). As against Him, oppression and wrong were in the place of judgment, and He was hurried to the grave as numbered with the transgressors.

I would observe that the propriety of interpreting these verses as the words of Jehovah is warranted by two clear considerations. First, the passage "for the transgression of My people was He smitten," affords literal evidence that they are so; and, secondly, the justification of Messiah which this passage contains is, as I may say, a moral evidence of the same; for judgment, and consequent justification is in this connection the province of God, and not of the saints. Accordingly we find in Isaiah 49 of this prophet, that Messiah says, "My judgment is with Jehovah;" and again, in the Gospel of John 8: 59, "I seek not Mine own glory; there is One that seeketh and judgeth." And an apostle, filled with the Spirit of his Lord, would say (1 Cor. 4: 4), "For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified; but He that judgeth me is the Lord."

Isa. 53: 10. "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand."

Here the saints again, as in their turn, look at Jesus.

Before interpreting their meditation, we may pause for a moment's reflection on that which here meets the soul, — that it is, as touching Jesus, that Jehovah, and the remnant of once ruined and helpless sinners, in judgment and affection meet; that it is Jesus who draws and detains and fixes the regards both of heaven and of earth, Jehovah counting Him as His elect, whom He delighteth to honour (Isa. 42: 1), the remnant esteeming Him "all its salvation and all its desire." And oh! the treasures of divine wisdom and goodness! that with the full maintenance of all the holy honours of God's throne, He who sits thereon, and they who had sold themselves to him who sought to overturn it, should yet meet in such fellowship as this!

In the verse which we are now considering, the remnant again rehearses Messiah's sufferings, as He endured them at the hand of Jehovah. The passage reads as if the saints had just caught the preceding words of Jehovah, wherein He had vindicated His holy One and righteous servant, and wondered therefore that in spite of this, "it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;" but soon recovering as it were from their surprise, through a fresh apprehension of the purpose and necessity of these sufferings, they anticipate and celebrate that three-fold blessed fruit of them which in due time the Lord was to gather. First, "He shall see His seed" — that He should have His household about Him like a flock of sheep, should gather the great congregation, should be encircled by the ten thousand times ten thousand, and the thousands of thousands who should understand and magnify the grace of these His sufferings, and say, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain" (Rev. 5: 11, 12). Secondly — "He shall prolong His days" — that He should enter manifestly upon the power of an endless life, that "having died unto sin once, He should live unto God," that "He that was dead should be alive for evermore." And here we observe that this promise embraces all the seed which He was to see and gather, according to the first promise; for He should take them with Himself into this life: having Him, the Son, they were with Him to have life eternal (1 John 5: 12); death, as touching them, was to be swallowed up in victory. Thirdly — "The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand," that He should have dominion; and that in His hand dominion should not again be abused and forfeited as it had been of old, but that the pleasure of Jehovah should be fully answered, and a sceptre of righteousness order in peace all things throughout the reconciled heavens and earth, shedding there "the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even of a morning without clouds." And here we, in like manner, observe that this promise embraces also the seed which He was to see and gather, for if sons with Him, as of one kingdom, as it is written, "When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3: 4).*

*There are thoughts and expressions here not quite correct, which I have not changed like some others in the paper yet more faulty. Ed.]

Isa. 53: 11, 12. "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied; by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great; and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He hath poured out His soul unto death; and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors."

Jehovah again takes up, as it were, the wondrous tale in these verses which close the prophet's strain. As with zealous desire for Messiah's exaltation, He confirms, and also in brighter and fuller light presents all the prospect of glory just anticipated by the remnant, — "He shall see of the travail of His soul," confirming the words, "He shall see His seed," and then presents the character of this seed — a seed made righteous through the Messiah's meritorious sufferings, and obedience unto death, and that this honour and dominion, as all scripture presents it, is the reward of His precious and most worthy sufferings.  Thus the Father delighteth to honour the suffering Son of man, and so with desire should we desire the day when this honour shall all be prepared for Him. "To wait for the Son from heaven" is as much of the character of a renewed soul, as is the turning "from idols to serve the living God." And there should be a sense of patience accompanying this waiting — the waiting being for an object so longed for, that the heart should be sensible of its "need of patience." But alas! how much have other delights than to see the Lord Jesus honoured, which is thus alone in sympathy with the Father, divided the hearts of most of us, and made it no occasion or patience to wait for His day!

I would here add, that while I thus treat the alternate parts of this beautiful and affecting prophecy as the language of the saints, the language indeed of every renewed soul that cleaves, as it must, in all desire to the once crucified and soon to be exalted Lord, — I would distinctly avow this — that I believe such will be the faith, and such the confession of the children of Israel in that day, when receiving the Spirit of grace and supplication they look on Him whom they pierced and mourn for Him, and find in Him and by Him "a fountain opened for their sin and their uncleanness" (Zech. 12, 13). Then, but not till then, will the connection between Isa. 53 and the following chapter of our prophet be really and livingly developed; for then shall the barren sing, and the woman that travaileth not with child break forth into singing because of the multitude of her children, the enlargement of the place of her tent, and her seed's inheritance of the Gentiles.

For even our own apostle testifies to us, that though blindness in part is now happening to Israel, yet shall all Israel be saved, and the receiving of them shall be to the world as life from the dead (Rom. 11). And we, the present election out of the world, only serve as a sample of that mercy by which Israel shall then be saved (Rom. 11: 31); and as an occasion for the provoking of them — the covenant people of God — by us who are no people, a foolish alienated nation (see Deut. 32: 21; Rom. 10: 19; Rom. 11: 11). But now Christ crucified is for Jew and Gentile; all are equally one in Him. Let us then "behold the Man." His sorrows have gone too much out of mind; the chastened tone which they should give to the spirits of all the worshipping household of our God is too feebly expressed among us. But with what tenderness will they be traced, with what power, as in the language of Isaiah, will they be rehearsed by the awakened tribes of Israel! May the Lord the Spirit quicken our sense of them and also give us to anticipate that joy and fulness of glory into which they shall, ere long, conduct the blessed Sufferer Himself at the head of "the great congregation."

Isaiah 66

Isaiah 66.

J. G. Bellett.

from  Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

In the last days, when the things of Israel become the subject of divine notice again, we know that two Objects will present themselves — the nation in a state of apostacy, and the remnant in the midst of them. It will be like the two at one mill, or in one bed, between whom the day of the Lord is to make solemn discernment. But as this will be so in the time of the Jewish nation by and bye, so is this the style very commonly in the Jewish prophets now, anticipating that time and action. The Spirit in them passes from the one of those objects to the other, in rapid and broken style, and this, also, often in the very same strain or discourse. And this we shall find in the closing chapter of the prophet Isaiah.

Isa. 66: 1, 2. In these verses the Lord, by the prophet, looks at the true Israel, the faithful remnant. He sees them, however, only in one character, but that of the deepest and most affectionate interest to Himself, as a humble and broken-hearted people. It is not what they have heard from Him, done to Him, or suffered for Him, that the Lord here notices, but simply the fragments of their broken, and therefore affectionate, hearts. This is the ornament which with Him is of great price. He knows how to value it. It is that which draws His eye beyond all the bright and wondrous works of His hands, though they be, as we know, His delight and glory. But that which sympathises with our mind or taste is really nearer to us than that which serves our interests. We know this among ourselves. The one who abroad in the affairs of life will promote our good in the world, is of course valued by us; but the one who can sit with us, and enter into the senses and enjoyments of the heart and mind, is still nearer, and more prized: and so with our God. That which serves His glory is not so near as the poor broken-hearted sinner, or the meek or quiet spirit, for there the deepest sympathies of the divine mind meet their object; and in a character like this the remnant are here under the eye of the lord.

Isa. 66: 3, 4. The other thing is then looked at in these next verses — the nation in their abominations, and in their own ways, and in their apostate work, and reprobate mind, bring a visitation from the Lord, and a day of judgment from their God.

Isa. 66: 5. The Spirit returns to the true Israel with a word of comfort, and they are invited to listen to a promise that the Lord would appear, to their joy and to the confusion of all that hate them.

Isa. 66: 6. Here this matured confusion is executed and brought on the wicked, all of a sudden. It is, as the Lord Himself says, like the lightning which cometh out of the east, and shineth unto the west; so rapid, so much as in the twinkling of an eye, is this judgment from the Lord, rendering recompense to His enemies.

Isa. 66: 7-14. Such was the doom of the wicked under the glance of the Lord. But these verses tell us that there is another scene of rapid action. For if the judgment, as of lightning, have removed the wicked, the presence of the Lord has adopted and filled Jerusalem, and seated her in her millennial place, as the mother of children on the right hand and on the left. For "the Lord is there." The new covenant is the mystic free-woman or Sarah, the mother of the children, and it will have its blood and its priest in these days of the kingdom at Jerusalem, when the wicked have been removed. Jesus, now hid in the heavens, in the Jerusalem above, is there ministering this new covenant (Gal. 4), but then He will have come to Zion as the Deliverer, to turn away ungodliness from Jacob; and Zion will then be the mother, the Zion of the land of Israel, as the "Jerusalem above," is now the mother; and the ancient pain and penalty will be taken off. It will not be said to her, "in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children." but "as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." Because the Lord is there, in His own proper energy. "Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord?" "I will come, and Sarah shall have a son." This explains to us this birth without the ancient penalty. And when she has thus brought forth her children, this mother will nurture and cherish them; she will satisfy them from her breasts, and nurse them on her knees; the children of the kingdom shall feed on the choice provisions of Zion, and then keep their holidays to the Lord, delighting themselves with the abundance of her glory. All the people shall have the thoughts of children towards Zion. Zion shall be their centre, and their source; and from the east and the west, the north and the south, their streams and their flocks shall ebb and flow there. And their "bones shall flourish like an herb" — they shall be, as it were, young again. For as sorrow makes the bones old (Psalm 32), joy, as it were, makes them young. The lame shall dance, and the dumb shall sing, and the eye shall see out of obscurity. Their flesh shall come to them as the flesh of a little child after the leprosy, and the vigour of the preserved Israel shall be like the greenness or spring-time of. the herb: it will be a season of resurrection to them.

Isa. 66: 15-18. Again the prophet returns to the scene of judgment, in which he here lets us know that the Gentile nations will be involved together with the apostate Israel. All shall be gathered then as to "the valley of decision," where the Lord will display Himself in the glory of righteous, omnipotent, irresistible judgment. (See Joel 3)

Isa. 66: 19, 20. But in the midst of this tremendous day of His anger on the nations, the prophet here intimates that the Lord will give some sign, at which, it may be, there will be repentance and return of heart, and then an escape out of this day of wrath. This is striking. This is a remnant from the nations brought to the Lord, as at the eleventh hour. Zechariah intimates the same thing. (Zech. 14: 14.) Only Isaiah teaches the additional fact, that this repentance has arisen from taking heed to some sign given by the Lord in the midst of that terrible day. And Zechariah tells us that this preserved Gentile people shall wait on the Lord's feast year by year; and Isaiah here tells us that they shall be engaged both in publishing the glory to their distant fellow Gentiles, and aid in gathering home the still dispersed ones of Israel to Judah, then to be taken as ministers of the Lord's sanctuary in the holy mountain Jerusalem.

Isa. 66: 22-24. In these closing verses the kingdom, to which all the previous action was preparatory, is understood to have come, and the Lord looks at Israel, the nations, and the scene of the recent judgment. Israel He promises shall remain before Him as sure as the new heavens and the new earth, of which we know it will not be said, as of the present heavens and earth, that they shall pus away; all flesh around His Israel, He then graciously declares, shall hold their new moons and sabbaths to the Lord in Zion, and as they do so, they shall witness the end of transgressions in the undying worm and unquenchable fire of the Lord's righteous anger; as Sodom is set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. And of all this Zechariah is again another witness, for he in like manner talks of the horrible spectacle which judgment will in that day make of the invaders of Jerusalem, and he also speaks of the nations from year to year holding their feast of tabernacles in Zion to the Lord. (Zech. 14: 12-16.)

An Introduction to Isaiah

An Introduction to Isaiah.

J. G. Bellett.

(Bible Treasury Vol. 4, p. 229 etc.)

In reading Matt. 1, 2, we learn, among other things, how the word of prophecy ought to be used; but we see also, how the carnal intellect treats it; and thus it furnishes a sound and healthful word to us, when we set ourselves down for a meditation on the prophetic Scriptures; for we are both guided and warned by what we find in those chapters.

The evangelist himself, under the Holy Ghost, shows us one of the right uses of prophecy. He calls the words of the prophets again and again to mind, in the course of those two chapters, as the realization of those words again and again passes before him. In Matt. 1 he remembers Isaiah 7, when the manner of the birth of the child was announced to Joseph by the angel. In Matt. 2 he calls Hosea 11 to mind, when he tells us that Joseph had to take the child down to Egypt. He does the same with Jeremiah 31, when Herod had sent forth and slain the young ones of Bethlehem. And again, when the child had been brought back from Egypt, and was taken to dwell at Nazareth, he remembers, as I may say, the sum of all the prophets, or a common testimony which they would all give in touching such a fact; and, as in their name, expresses it in these words: "He shall be called a Nazarene."

This illustrates, again let me say, one of the godly uses of the prophetic Scriptures. Of course, I know that all this was done in and by the evangelist through the Spirit of God. But it evidences how the word ought to be treasured up in the heart of the saints, that it may come forth with ease, and, as with divine authority, seal one occasion after another, as it arises. It is a beautiful exercise of the renewed mind. It is of ourselves judging what is right. It is discerning the time as we would the face of the sky. (Luke 12: 56, 57). This identifying, with holy intelligence, of the ancient oracle of the Spirit of God with the present acting of the hand of God, is one form of the obedience and service of faith and worship.

But again. In these same chapters we see the men of the east illustrating, for our further instruction, another use of prophecy. They had, as we may say, kept it in mind, though delivered centuries before. They had waited for it though it tarried, knowing that it would come and would not tarry. They had lived upon it, as I may again say, from the day of Balaam to the day of Christ. And they had counted all but second to it; for as soon as the old oracle was fulfilled, and the star which had been promised appears, they become obedient to the heavenly vision; and, according to it, begin a long untried journey in faith and hope.

This, surely, was another godly use of the word of prophecy, a very fine and noble-hearted use of it, the best and the highest. Beautiful, as we have already marked it, to see the evangelist himself, with a mind fraught, through the Spirit, with Scripture-recollections, able, in holy intelligence, to use and apply them; but it is something finer still, thus at personal cost, to act upon Scripture or prophetic communications. This was Abraham's or Daniel's use of the Word of God. When the approaching judgment of Sodom was announced to Abraham, he at once acts on what he heard, and intercedes for that wicked city because of the righteous that might be found there. When Daniel knows by the prophetic books that the seventy year's captivity was just running out, he set himself, by prayer and fasting, to seek mercies for his land and people. And after this manner these men of the east here use the Word of God which had been left among them by the prophet of old. And so ought we, beloved, still to use it. The word is not to be as a dead letter in the intellect. Nor is the head to be more busy with it and about it than the heart and the conscience, though this word may surely rebuke some of us; but we are to put it forth to use, and let it prove its value.

All this may well instruct us. But these chapters afford us holy and serious warning also.

The scribes in Herod's court have the prophetic word in the clear, full, and accurate possession of their minds. They can teach it to others. It is bright and correct in their intellect and memory. But though this be so, though they can teach it to others, they make no use of it themselves. Solemn sight indeed! They sent the men of the east on their way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem in the bright light of the prophet Micah, but they take not one step along that road themselves. They are rather, morally, in company with that very man Balaam, who had sent these same men of the east on their journey from their own distant land to Jerusalem. Balaam, like these scribes, and these scribes like Balaam, were instructed in the way of God, but remained wholly uninfluenced by it. Balaam loved the world though announcing its doom. These scribes remained in kings' courts, though the star was shining in Bethlehem according to the word of God which they professed and preached.

Surely I may therefore say as to these chapters, that they carry to our souls a serious warning, as well as encouraging instructions and examples. We have to dread mere activity of mind over the Scriptures, and should rather see to it that heart and conscience wait, in their due place, on the light of the oracles of God.

But I would proceed.

Prophets in Israel came forth upon the corruption of the priesthood. (See 1 Samuel 1 - 3.) They were an extraordinary provision of grace upon the failure of the provisions of the established system.

Prophets were either speaking or writing ministers of the Spirit. Samuel begins the regular line of them, as we learn from Acts 3: 24, though their ministry had been occasional before. Isaiah, however, takes the lead among the writing prophets.

They were to the people of Israel what evangelists now are to the world. Their ministry challenged or demanded a change or conversion. They called for repentance. But among the characteristics which distinguish them is this very eminent one — the Spirit spake through them. They were nothing else, nothing less or more, only that which the Holy Ghost made them.

This was a high and honourable distinction. It was not thus with the priesthood. Aaron and his sons, priests after the law of a carnal commandment, ministered in their office by title of their own flesh. They were nothing less or more, but only that which the flesh made them. They were the seed of Abraham, and of the family of Aaron. They served in the flesh, not in the presence and energy of the Spirit. In the Prophets the Spirit is speaking to Israel, though by the priests the Spirit was not ministering in Israel.

This was distinction indeed. This was, also, advance in the progress of the divine way. This was a high and eminent landmark or ensign, in the path which the wisdom of God was travelling for the unfolding of its purposes and treasures.

But further. By the word of prophecy, the Lord treats His elect as friends. This is a very blessed truth. When I listen to the gospel of the grace of God, I know myself to be addressed as a sinner. The salvation of God is published, and I, sinner as I am, am called to know it and to take it. When I read the practical, hortatory Scriptures, Scriptures which give me counsel as to walk and conversation, instruct me in duties and services, and undertake to regulate my heart, I see myself trained, and kept, and educated as a saint. But when reading prophetic Scriptures, I have to take knowledge of myself as a friend. The Lord is disclosing His secrets to me. He. treats me as one who is entitled to the privileges of personal intimacy. And when we think of this, the prophetic writings, surely, are presented to us in a very wondrous and excellent character.

Are we children and brethren, I may ask, in divine counsels of grace? Yes, servants, worshippers, and heirs also. But in the midst of these relationships we find ourselves friends also. Bethany is the picture of much of this. There Martha was serving; there Mary was worshipping; and there Lazarus was occupying the place of a friend, sitting at one table with his Lord, as in personal intimacy with Him.

Abraham was the friend of God. He is so called. And God communicated to him what He was about to do, though it did not personally concern Abraham himself. Moses spoke to the Lord face to face, as a man would speak with his friend. Jeremiah talked to the Lord about His judgments, expressing his wonder and the difficulty he felt as to some of them. David sat before the Lord as Lazarus did. Moses and Elias, though in glory, were in like intimacy, talking with Jesus on the Holy Mount, thus illustrating in the brightest, surest form, that the intimacy and friendship begun on earth is continued in heaven.

For indeed, beloved, we may say to one another, there is no great moral distance between the earth and the heaven, or the present and the future of God's people. The perfection of that which now we have in spirit or in principle is there. But still, we have entered, morally, on the life of eternity. If, on the journey of Elijah in 2 Kings 2, Bethel came after Gilgal, and Jericho after Bethel, and the Jordan after Jericho, heaven, in like case and naturalness, comes after the Jordan. The journey had these stages. He went from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, from Jericho to the Jordan, and across it, and then from the Jordan, on its eastern banks, to heaven. Mysterious ways in that grace that aboundeth, telling of this same personal intimacy! The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof waited on Elijah. Elisha had been the companion of his journey before; and now the horsemen of Israel from heaven. In earlier days the Lord was on His way to Sodom; but He must needs turn aside to the plain of Mamre, to tell Abraham what was taking Him there. And just thus is it in prophecy. The Lord is on His way to the judgment of the world and the glories of the kingdom which are to follow. But He stops by the way, to let His elect learn what is before Him. It may in no measure personally concern them; as what the Lord was about to do at Sodom or with Sodom, as I have observed, in no wise concerned Abraham. Still the Lord told him of it, and even turned aside, or tarried by the way, to do so. It was the privilege of the relationship in which Abraham stood; it was the secret of One who had made him His friend. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." (Amos 3: 7.)

But again, I would notice another thing. At times the personality of the prophet appear. We are let into the exercises of his own heart, as he pursues his subject under the hand of God. This is very grateful to us. Our own hearts take pleasure in thus being given to understand the experiences of these favoured men. In the book of Jeremiah, this personality of which I speak is perceived and prevails everywhere.

I need scarcely add, that it is very well, in going through any of the Prophets, to acquaint ourselves with the history or circumstances of the times in which they ministered — and this, of course, we are to do through the kindred inspired historic books of Scripture.

We are also, I would add, though scarcely needed, carefully to mark the quotations made from the prophetic book which we may be reading in the New Testament, and to consider the interest with which the same Spirit who once gave out these communications there uses them, the connection in which He puts them, and the application He makes of them.

These things I would shortly say as to all the prophetic writings found in the New Testament, as from Isaiah to Malachi. But I would now, for a little further moment, speak more specifically of Isaiah, who stands first in the line of the writing Prophets — not first, as we know, in the course of time, but in the order of the books.

When we seat ourselves in company with Isaiah — that is, when we take on us, in the grace of God, to meditate on that volume of divine communications which the Spirit has given us through him, the first thing we have to do, as I may speak, is to discern the measure of each burthen or strain; to discover, I mean, to satisfy ourselves, where it begins and where it ends. As a common guide in doing this, I would observe that the glory or the kingdom, under some form, some notice of it, or another, will be found at the close, challenges of corruption or threatenings of judgment, or the like, at the opening. Of course there are exceptions to this rule; but this may be received as a hint.

As to his general materials, the subjects he treats, the things he is looking at, I believe that we shall find these five distinct matters; or these five successive eras in the progress of the earth's history are contemplated by Isaiah, generally in all his strains, but under great variety of form and connection.

1. Evil times, days of corruption in Israel, whether in the prophet's own time or otherwise.

2. Judgment of this corruption, whether by the Assyrian, the Chaldean, or others.

3. The present age, "the times of the Gentiles," the interval during which Israel is disclaimed.

4. The crisis, as it is sometimes called, "the times of the end," the last of the seventy weeks of Daniel, when God deals with Israel again, and enters on the closing judgment of the earth and the nations.

5. The glory of the kingdom which follows this crisis or judgment, commonly known by the name of the millennium.*

*These last two seasons or eras are called, as I may say, by all the prophets, "the day of the Lord." For that day acts first in judging, then in ruling. It embraces the crisis and the kingdom. Just as the natural day, which first judges the darkness, turning it out of the creation, and then rules the creation for its appointed time.

These appear to me to be, generally, his subjects, the successive seasons that he is looking at. In dealing with them, most surely and most necessarily, Messiah Himself is introduced, and the remnant or the elect of Israel preserved in days of judgment. But the Church is not seen. That was a mystery hid in God, and not the subject of prophecy. Prophets, as I have already observed, had been called forth upon the corruption and unfaithfulness of the priesthood (see 1 Sam. 1 - 7; Acts 3: 24); and to them and by them divine counsels concerning Israel and the earth and its nations are revealed and communicated. But the mystery hid in God, and which is a divine counsel that does not concern Israel or the earth and its nations, as such, was not made known to them as it is now made known to apostles and prophets of the New Testament by the Spirit. (Eph. 3: 1-9.)

But let me further observe that, in reading Isaiah, we must be prepared at times for his altogether passing over the present long interval, or, as the Lord speaks, "the times of the Gentiles." For he links his own day, or the day of Old Testament corruption in Israel, with the crisis, or "the day of the Lord;" that is, the first of the five eras or seasons which I have numbered, with the fourth of them. He would seem to be writing one unbroken story; and yet the parts of it may be separated by many centuries, and strange and wondrous revolutions in the earth. But in the great moral sense this is beautifully consistent. For Israel is taken up by the Lord in the day of the crisis, just as the same corrupt thing which she had been from the beginning. Chronologically, Israel is many generations, morally, but one.

And, again, Isaiah, like the other prophets, gives us to see the work of the Spirit of God with the souls of the people, as well as the dealing of the hand of God with their circumstances. Indeed, these things, I may say, of necessity, pervade all these writings. But there will be found large and beautiful variety in the way of treating and presenting these things: and yet, withal, no confusion. Isaiah is commonly read, I can suppose, as if his volume were a mass of materials hard to be distinguished, or reduced to anything like order — though many a brilliant light is perceived to shine there, and many a wondrous forecasting of the future is discovered to be revealed there. And all this has cheered and guided the elect of God in all ages, and strengthened them in faith and hope. But all this is not doing justice to this precious workmanship of the Spirit of God. It is by no manner of means an adequate and worthy apprehension of this book. For the light of God which shines there is a steady light; the voice of God which is heard there gives lie uncertain and no discordant sound. The reader must cease to regard this book as a mere mass of materials, or he will neither do it or himself full justice, in his labour of meditation over it.

I purpose simply to separate this book into what has appeared to me to be its different parts or sections which I have already denominated strains or burthens. They are distinct breathings or effusions of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, the Spirit of truth, the Holy Ghost. And having done this, having thus separated the sections one from another, I will give each of them a title, such as the section or strain itself may easily or naturally suggest.

And I will add, for I feel the truth of it, that it is specially seasonable, and good for edification, to meditate on prophetic truth at this present time; for the present is, surely, a significant time. The course of the world is rapidly striding towards that consummation of pride and iniquity which all the prophets have anticipated, and which has to be judged in the day of the Lord, ere the glory or the kingdom can be revealed and established.* But still the glory will be revealed, and the kingdom will be established; for the whole earth, corrupted as it will be throughout, will pass through the crisis into the glory. God will judge; but His judgment shall be purifying, not destructive. The earth outlives it. The rainbow pledges this, the rainbow of Gen. 9 and of Rev. 4 and 10 — distant parts of the divine volume brought together to tell the same tale of mercy and salvation towards this earth, which God at the beginning gave to the children of men, and which He still loves so well Himself. For, as we read, "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord. Let the sea roar and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein; let the floods clap their hands, let the hills be joyful together before the Lord." (Ps. 96, 98.) Then shall it be said to the Lord, the Creator, and also of Him, in the words of another Psalm, "Thou sendeth forth thy Spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever, the Lord shall rejoice in his works." (Psalm 104.)

*Christendom, in these times of the Gentiles, having corrupted itself just like Israel before it, is to be brought into this judicial action of the day of the Lord. The Apocalypse is the great formal witness of this. It deals with corruption, judgment, and glory, like the ancient prophets.

I would now subjoin what I have already mentioned, a kind of index, or "a table of contents," descriptive of the parts into which, as I have judged, this great and precious writing of the Spirit of God may be divided.

There will be found to be eighteen distinct subjects. And it is interesting to add this, that citations from each of them will be found in the New Testament;* the Spirit thus, if they needed it, scaling afresh His own revelations which were made centuries before.

*The historic interlude, No. 9, may be an exception — and yet it is scarcely an exception; for that is an historical narrative, and not properly a strain of the prophet.

SUBJECTS.

1. The Preface, Isa. 1.

2. The Day of the Lord, Isa. 2 - 4

3. The Vineyard, Isa. 5

4. The Throne of Judicial Glory, Isa. 6

5. The Confederacy; or, Emmanuel and the Children, Isa. 7 - 9: 7.

6. The Assyrian, Isa. 9: 8 - 12

7. The Threshing of Nations, Isa. 13 - 27

8. The Five Woes, Isa. 28 - 35

9. The Historic Interlude, Isa. 36 - 39

10. Israel in Babylon, Isa. 40 - 48

11. Jesus and Jerusalem, Isa. 49

12. The Risen Jesus and the Remnant, Isa. 50 - 52: 12.

13. The Cross and its Virtues, Isa. 52: 13 - 55

14. The Remnant Manifested, Isa. 56, 57

15. Israel Trained for the Kingdom,  Isa. 58 - 60

16. The Two Advents, Isa. 61 - 63: 6.

17. Israel's Prayer and Messiah's Answer, Isa. 63: 7 - 65.

18. The Conclusion, Isa. 66.

I now propose to add a note on each of these distinct strains; but merely with the hope of helping the reader to discover, if need be, the leading thought there.

NOTES.

Isa. 1 contains all the leading materials of the book — corruption, judgment, glory, or the kingdom, together with notice of the remnant, and of the present age or Gentile parenthesis. Because of this, and because it stands by itself, I call it "the preface."

Isa. 2 - 4. Here the kingdom, under the figure of "a mountain," is anticipated at the beginning, and presented in some of its glories, at the end. But corruption and judgment are the great materials of this burthen in the midst of this opening and closing with glory. But the remnant are seen for a moment. (Isa. 3: 10.) Infatuation, which commonly, in God's way, precedes destruction, is anticipated in Isa. 3: 1-9. The judgment of God is called by its common title in Scripture, "the day of the Lord;" which I give, therefore, as the title of this burthen.

Isa. 5. This figure of a vineyard is used to the same intent in Matt. 21 by the Lord Jesus. We get corruption and judgment here-judgment as in the present "times of the Gentiles." But there is no notice or anticipation of the kingdom. And this is quite unusual. Just as it was very unusual with the Lord to speak of His death, without speaking also of His resurrection. The title of "the vineyard" necessarily suggested itself here.

Isa. 6. This throne is one of judgment or of judicial glory. This appears from the chapter itself, as also from references to it in the New Testament. (See Matt. 13; John 12; Acts 28.) The prophet may be said, in a sense, to represent the remnant. He passes through the same process as John in Rev. 1. Infatuation here also precedes destruction, as in Isa. 3. This strain is naturally called, "the throne of glory."

Isa. 7 - 9: 7. Here we see unbelief in Israel followed by present judgment. But confederacies of their foes are finally to be all broken up (of which there is a present pledge given), a remnant is to be reserved and educated, and glory in the kingdom to be reached. Emmanuel and His mystic children are signs of this. Signs or pledges of like kind are given in Genesis. (See also Hosea 1.)

It is natural to call this burthen, "the Confederacy, or Emmanuel and the children."

Isa. 9: 12. Here we learn, that after several slighter chastisements, Israel (not Judah) is finally chastened of God through the Assyrian. (2 Kings 18.) But the Assyrian himself is doomed — his pride and fall anticipated. The fall of the Assyrian, however, leads to the kingdom; and this shows that the Assyrian is not only the captor of Israel as in early days, but the enemy of Israel in the last days — as in Micah 5: 5. (Comp. Isa. 10: 22, and Rom. 9: 27 - 11: 10, and Rom. 15: 12.) This strain is, accordingly, naturally called "the Assyrian." The kingdom or glory in Isa. 12 is celebrated, as in Ex. 15 — in Isa. 4 it had rather been described.

Isa. 13 - 27. This is the judgment or the threshing (to use prophetic language) of all the nations which had meddled with God's people; and this act of judgment makes way for Israel's deliverance and kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar's conquests in early days are to be read as the typical pledges of those national judgments in the last days which thus usher in the kingdom. Isa. 25 - 27 rehearse certain exercises of soul, and principles of truth, in the remnant, suited to such an era and action as this. Christendom, having had to do with Israel's Lord, as these nations once had to do with Israel themselves, is to find its place and share in these judgments. (See the Apocalypse,) This burthen easily suggests the title, "the threshing of the nations."

Isa. 28 - 35. Unlike the preceding burthen, this addresses itself not to the nations, but to God's people. The woes are successively pronounced on Samaria — on Jerusalem — on the rebellious children who sought counsel from Egypt — on those who went down for help to Egypt — and then, but not till then, in the fifth and last place, on Israel's spoiler, the great enemy of the last days. But gradually, as we advance through these woes, the promised deliverance and joy is heard more fully — till, at last, all is glory, the fruit of promise. It is simply called, "the five woes."

Isa. 36 - 39. This is "the historic interlude." We have it in the historic books-not, of course, as an interlude there, but as part and parcel of the subject matter. (See 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.) We know that Scripture has historic as well as fictitious parables. They are called "allegories" in Gal. 4. And I believe the fragments of history in these chapters are allegories. But I say no more — save that I would add this. Hezekiah's writing is like the song on the Red Sea, Deborah's song, Hannah's song, Jeremiah's Lamentations, and Mary's song in Luke 1. That is, it has a secondary sense. So, his sickness has a secondary sense — like Jonah's shipwreck, Jeremiah's yoke, Hosea's marriage, or Paul's girdle.

Isa. 40 - 48. In this strain of Isaiah, Israel, the people of God, are contemplated as in Babylon; and this being so, God, the Lord of Israel, is presented by the prophet as doing three things.

1. He pleads His own cause with Babylon and her idols; convicting and confounding them.

2. He pleads His own cause with his people there in Babylon; rebuking and instructing them.

3. He pleads His people's cause with Babylon; delivering them out of that iron prison.

These things show a perfect action. This was likewise the divine procedure when His people were aforetime in Egypt, as we see in Exodus 1 - 15. And these are illustrations of the way of God in and with this world where His elect are. This is simply "Israel in Babylon."

Isa. 49. In this beautiful strain of the prophet, Messiah is heard rehearsing His own history, from the very womb of the Virgin to the throne of the kingdom. But Zion, as though she had been listening to this rehearsal, complains as one forgotten, not finding herself in her place in this history. Messiah answers this fear and this complaint, with good words and comfortable words. This I may therefore call "Jesus and Jerusalem."

Isa. 50 - 52: 12. Here the Lord, as in resurrection, rehearses His own story as from the time the close of Matt. 23, when He put away Israel (turning His back on Jerusalem), to the day of His resurrection, when God justified Him. And then, upon this story, on the ground of it, He counsels and teaches the remnant, His Israel, in the midst of the nations. And under this teaching, the remnant are laid on in grace and truth. Much of the doctrine of the Epistle to the Romans is faintly perceived here. The day of their deliverance is anticipated. This may be fitly called, the risen Jesus and the remnant."

Isa. 52: 13-55. Here the cross, or the crucified Jesus, is looked at alternately by Jehovah and by the true Israel — Israel in the day of their faith and revival. And on the authority of the cross, Jerusalem is addressed in a strain of the richest promises, and sinners in the largest way of grace; this telling us, as we know, what wonders of grace and glory the cross is able to sustain. This burthen is not of the general character, dealing with corruption, judgment, and glory. It has rather its own object, and may justly be called, "the cross and its virtues."

Isa. 56, 57. This strain of our prophet may be separated into three parts.

1. The nation is challenged to render to God fruit under their own covenant; and strangers and eunuchs are promised blessings if they will join themselves to the God of Israel. (Isa. 56: 1-8.)

2. Upon the convicted iniquity of the nation, the beasts (the Gentile empires) are summoned to avenge God's quarrel upon it. (Isa. 56: 9 - 57: 13.)

3. In the midst of the reprobate nation, the remnant is manifested in characters of very great moral beauty. (Isa. 57: 13-21.)

We learn, incidentally, that some of the remnant will be martyred, as in Psalm 79, and the Apocalypse.

The general materials of Isaiah appear here, but we call it, "the remnant manifested."

Isa. 58 - 60. This strain may be separated into five parts.

1. The nation, by command of God, is challenged. (Isa. 58.)

2. The remnant accredit this challenge. They identify themselves with the nation's guilt; as Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and others, in their day. (Isa. 59: 1-15.)

3. In answer, the Lord prepares to rescue His Israel, as all Scripture, I may say, teaches us. (Isa. 59: 15-20.)

4. The Lord then addresses Messiah as in the terms of the new covenant. (Isa. 59: 21.)

5. The glory or the kingdom is then detailed. Isa. 60.)

This burthen, or effusion of the Spirit through the prophet, may be called, "Israel trained for the kingdom."

Isa. 61 - 63: 6. I believe that a day of vengeance was purposed by the Lord's first advent. (Luke 1: 71.) It would then hive been on Israel's Gentile oppressors; but Messiah having been refused, that vengeance was not executed, nor was Israel delivered. And now, when the vengeance comes, as it will at the second advent, Israel will have to bear their part in it. Thus they have made trouble for themselves, as we all do at times, and as they did before when they went through the wilderness. Consequently, their path into the kingdom, in Isa. 62, 63, differs from what it would have been, as in Isa. 61. His associates are watchmen, as we see in the Psalms and in Luke 18. See other watchmen in Isa. 52: 8. This burthen may be called, "the two advents."

Isa. 63: 7 - 65. These chapters give a sample of the exercises of the remnant, which we find so largely delineated in the Psalms. They form an appeal and an answer, as between the remnant and Jehovah-Messiah. The Spirit has recorded these experiences of the people of God, as Christian books so commonly do in our own times. For the remnant are the saints in their day; only they are called "remnant," because they will be left for the kingdom out of the judgment of the nation. This strain is a dialogue, and we call it "Israel's prayer and Messiah's answer."

Isa. 66. This last, like the first chapter, contains all the materials which generally characterize the strains or burthens of Isaiah: corruption of the nation, judgment, reservation of an elect remnant, glory or the kingdom, and "the times of the Gentiles." "Mercy" and "judgment" are here alternately the subject. (Psalm 101: 1.) But it suggests the gospel of the glory in verse 19, as other Scriptures gives us the gospel of Canaan (Heb. 4), the gospel of the heavenly calling, as now to us (Heb. 4), the gospel of the kingdom. (Matt. 24 and Rev. 14.) Zech. 14 may be read in company with much of this chapter; and Acts 17, Paul's sermon at Athens, in company with the first verse of it. We simply call this strain, standing by itself, as it does, like the first chapter, "the conclusion," as we called that "the preface."

These notes are very short. I desired to make them as much so as I could, but yet serving to convey at the least, as I have said, some one leading thought on each of these strains or burthens. I affect nothing more than giving an index to the contents of the book of Isaiah; and then a slight intimation of what I judge to be their general bearing and signification.

CONCLUSION.

Thus have I desired and attempted to clear the way a little to the further use of this chief man among the writing prophets, as I may call Isaiah.

It is but a small service in that way which this paper has been rendering; but it is a very grateful task, to be bringing forth the glories and perfections of Scripture just at this time. For the insolence of some men at this time exceedeth, and their heartlessness is equal to their insolence. What little care they must have for the poor, unlettered man who walks in the fear of God, in the light of faith, and the consolations of the Spirit, to assail all the foundations of his peace, and send his soul adrift! And what Amalek-insolence is it, to come forth and dare the glory to its face after this manner! For what, I ask, is the sacred volume but, in another form, a cloudy pillar (the residence of the glory), which is accompanying the wayfaring camp of the elect through this desert-world? Does not glory dwell there? Is not the Scripture a depository, a tabernacle of countless moral glories? And is it not its happy business to light up the path of the present Israel of God? Is it not all this? And if so, is it not Amalek-insolence to come forth, and dare it to its face, withstanding the camp of God who are trusting in it, and walking in the light of it. (Exodus 17.)

What a solemn controversy must the Lord have with these men, when we read at the close of that chapter such a writing as this: "The Lord hath sworn, the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation."

And this is all practising the iniquity which is to mark the closing days of man's world. It is the heart of the children of man exercising itself in that spirit which is to ripen into the infidel daring of "the beast" and his confederates; for they will confront the Rider and His army, though they come from heaven, as once Amalek confronted Israel, though the pillar of glory was at that moment shining over them. (Rev. 19) But we still sing, and will sing,

"A glory fills the sacred page,

Majestic as the sun!

It lends a light to every age,

It lends, but borrows none."

Israel and Jerusalem in the Times of Refreshing

Israel and Jerusalem in the Times of Refreshing.

Zech. 12: 10, to the end of the book.

J. G. Bellett.

Notes of Lectures in Cork, June 1844.

Simple Testimony vol. 1, 1845, p. 303.

(Simple Testimony for the Comfort and Profit of the Children of God.

Published chiefly from papers sent from Demerara, and with a view to circulation among brethren in the Lord in that land. London: 1 Warwick Square.)

The interpretation of such prophetic scriptures belongs to Israel, yet, in principle, we have our portion.

The Spirit is here telling of the ways of God with Israel in days yet to come.

1st. The Spirit of grace and of supplication is poured upon them — they mourn for their sin. Thus we see them convicted of sin.

2nd. The fountain is opened-the wounded side of Jesus sends forth the cleansing flood-their scarlet sins are made whiter than snow.

3rd. We see them a self-judging people-the idols are put away. They now search out every thing contrary to the mind of Jesus. See Zech. 13: 2-4.

4th. We see them in communion — they come and enquire-"What are these wounds in thine hands?" Here they delight to search the depth of His sorrows. Jerusalem, the high-priest's palace, Pilate's judgment-seat, and Calvary, convey wondrous things to their souls.

Then, in chap. 14, we see them a glorious people. Jesus comes back to the Mount of Olives. There He had once been in humiliation; but now the scene is changed, and He is in brightest glory, and He has all His saints with Him. The light of His presence now begins to show itself — "At evening time it shall be light." Here the order of nature is changed, for according to it, the evening would lead to midnight; but now the morning of a glorious day dawns upon Israel and the world at evening time. It is like the sun going back in the dial of Ahaz.

Next we have the effects of this day. "Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem." Also no change of season shall interrupt them-in summer and in winter shall it be.

Next, the Lord is King over all the earth. All now bows beneath the peaceful sceptre of Jesus. See Ps. 72 and Ps. 85.

This glory that fills the scene, falls with the greatest power upon Israel. Ver. 10 says, that the adjacent places are turned to a plain, and that Jerusalem is lifted up, to enjoy the better these beams of glory. Then it rests in comfort-men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.

Next, Israel's enemies are plagued, verses 12 to 15.

Then the feast of tabernacles is being held at Jerusalem, and all the nations must go up once a year to keep it. It is implied that Egypt will not go up, verse 18.

This lovely scene closes with what is the foundation of all joy, whether here or there-"Holiness unto the Lord." All wears the aspect of priestly sanctity-" Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever." None but worshippers can dwell in this house. There must be no Canaanite there.

Jacob in Egypt

Jacob in Egypt.

J. G. Bellett.

from  Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

In conflicts, as one has said, not only is Satan defeated, but the tried saint learns fresh secrets about his own feebleness and the resources and grace of God. So, I may add, in the wanderings of the heart, in departure from the power of faith and hope, not only is the soul chastened and exercised, but it learns, to God's glory, that it must come back to that posture in which the Lord first set it.

These thoughts may introduce us to the closing period of Jacob's history.

At the beginning Jacob had a title to the inheritance in the grace and sovereignty of God. "The elder shall serve the younger" had pronounced the decree of God in his favour. The rights of nature in the person of Esau were not allowed to stand in his way. The purpose of the grace of God secured everything to him, his only but all-sufficient title, as it is ours. From simple confidence in this he departed. He sought to get his brother's seal to this title (Gen. 25: 31), and then, in guile, to get his father's also. (Gen. 27)

This was a fraud; and twenty years' exile, endured in the midst of wrongs and oppressions, was the divine discipline.

But this was also "confidence in the flesh." It was Galatianism — a seeking to get our title to blessing, or to birthright, or to inheritance from God, sealed by some other hand than His.

In the end, however, his soul is found in the exercise of the simplest confidence. He is about to die, and the sons of Joseph, which he had by the Egyptian, are brought before him. He at once adopts them. They had no title — at least none to the rights of the firstborn; but Jacob adopts them and puts them in the place of the firstborn, giving them a double portion, treating them as though they had been Reuben and Simeon.

In all this there was the stern refusal to confer with flesh and blood. His own bowels might have pleaded for his own first-born. But no: Reuben must give place to Joseph, who, in his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, shall have one portion above his brethren. Grace shall prevail. Faith shall read its title to birthright, blessing, divine inheritance, and all things, to the full gainsaying of the claims of flesh and blood, or rights of nature.

But further, Manasseh the elder shall yield to Ephraim the younger, as Reuben the firstborn has been made to yield to Joseph the eleventh, and this, too, in despite of the most affecting pleadings and struggles of nature. In the bowels of a father, Joseph contends for the rights of Manasseh. Jacob feels for him in those yearnings. In answer to them he says, "I know it, my son, I know it." But he must pass on till he get beyond, the hearing of the cry of nature, and publish the purpose of God and the title of grace, setting Ephraim above Manasseh. (Gen. 48)

Thus is he brought to occupy the very ground where the hand of God had set him at the beginning, and from which, through confidence in the flesh, he departed. He now learns that those whom God blesses shall be blest, that His grace needs not the help of flesh, nor His promise the seal of man. Nay, but that rather, in spite of flesh, and in independence of man, God will make it good. Had it been needful, to the securing of the divine inheritance to him, to procure his dying father's blessing, Jacob now sees in his setting Ephraim above Manasseh, in spite of Joseph, that God could and would have brought it about. He had desired Jacob's own seal to his title under God; but now he learns that God can vindicate the title He confers, and make good the undertakings and promises of His grace, in spite, as it were, of even earth and hell, the reluctance of nature, or all the struggles of flesh and blood.

This was a striking witness of his soul recovering its early and right condition. But there are others.

The call of God was to a resurrection-hope, or to an inheritance in the heavenly country. The patriarchs so apprehended it. (Heb. 11: 13-16)

Abraham testified to this hope through his life and ways, failing though he did in some incidental matters, as in the denial of his wife before Pharaoh and Abimelech, and in the taking of Hagar.

So did Isaac, though failing also and betraying the ways of nature.

Jacob, likewise, testified to it, dwelling with Abraham and Isaac, in tents, as heirs of the same promises. (Heb. 11: 9) But he departed more directly from this faith than they had. He built a house at Succoth — he trafficked in land with the Shechemites — he carelessly allowed his sons to join in affinity with the daughters of Canaan: all these things betraying the departure of his heart from the call of God, and the resurrection-hope in which his fathers had walked. The present world, in its possessions, occupations, and alliances, seems to have become an object with him. (Gen. 33: 17-20, Gen. 37)

But in the end we have the witness of a beautiful recovery in his soul in this particular also.

This begins to manifest itself at Beersheba. (Gen. 46: 14) He pauses there, on his journey from Mamre, afraid to approach Egypt, as mindful of Abram in Gen. 12, and of Isaac, in Gen. 26: 2, 3. This was beautiful. It showed the sensitiveness of a freshly quickened soul, of one that was learning the lessons of God under a fresh impression of His Spirit. And the Lord immediately honours this by a visitation of His servant, such as he had not had since the day of Bethel in Gen. 35: 9.

And this recovery of his soul is again manifested when he reaches Egypt, in his fine confession before the king. He talks of his pilgrimage, and yet, in blessing the king, assumes to be the better or superior. (Heb. 7: 7.) And all this tells us that his soul was exactly in the consciousness and element which the call of God had set it in — that he regarded himself as having nothing "in this present evil world" but a stranger's tent and a pilgrim's fare, but that he was anointed of God to a better inheritance than even that of the kings of the earth. (Gen. 47: 7-10.)

This is a beautiful witness of the health of the soul of this pilgrim-father. But the same is still further declared. He lives for seventeen years in Egypt, but there is nothing of building or trafficking there, as before at Succoth and at Shechem. And at last, in his dying hour, with great zeal he testifies his resurrection-hope according to the call of God. He requires a promise from Joseph that he would not bury him in Egypt, but take his body to the burying-place of his fathers in the land of Canaan. He makes him swear to this; and again charges all his sons to do the same with him, describing to them particularly the very spot in Canaan where his bones were to lie, "as in sure and certain hope." (Gen. 48, 49) His whole soul seems engaged in this, that he might tell it out, that all his expectations were linked with the promise of God, with the hope of his fathers, with the objects and inheritance of faith, with the portion to which the call of God summons the soul — the heavenly country beyond the grave.

These are different manifestations of the recovered and healthful condition of the patriarch's soul. I will, however, notice another.

In earlier days he had been careless as to the ways of his children. When Reuben defiled his bed, no grief or shame on his part is recorded. When Levi and Simeon shed the blood of the Shechemites, it is only a sorrow to him, as it endangered. him with the people of the land. (Gen. 34, 35) But, at the end, a very different mind expresses itself in him.

In the course of his prophetic words upon his sons, now and again his own heart is allowed to utter itself, and such utterances are full of spiritual affection, expressing, as we may see, a very improved condition of soul. Thus, Reuben's history is, it is most true, drawn by the hand of the Spirit, but in the midst of it the patriarch utters the horror of his own soul over the remembrance of Reuben's iniquity. While awarding their several destinies to Simeon and Levi, his heart in like manner is given space to declare its abhorrence and full rejection of their sin and blood-guiltiness. And so, in earlier days, he had been careless of the apostate ways of his children, marrying the daughters of Canaan; but now, in the course of the same prophetic words, contemplating the apostacy of Dan, in sickness of soul over such a sight, he breathes out a longing after the promise — "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord." (Gen. 49)

This, among the other witnesses, tells of the recovered, healthful, spiritual condition of the soul of Jacob while in Egypt, or in the closing period of his chequered and eventful life. Breaches which the world or the flesh had made are repaired, and by the hand of his shepherd is he surely led in paths of righteousness.

The Lord Jesus in John 11, 12

The Lord Jesus in John 11, 12.

J. G. Bellett.

from  Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

These chapters show us in what different channels the Lord's thoughts flowed from those of the heart of man. His ideas, so to speak, of misery and of happiness, were so different from what man's naturally are.

The eleventh chapter opens with a scene of human misery. The dear family at Bethany are visited with sickness, and the voice of health and thanksgiving in their dwelling has to yield to mourning, lamentation, and woe. But He, who of all had the largest and tenderest sympathies, is the calmest among them; for He carried with Him that foresight of resurrection, which made Him overlook the chamber of sickness, and the grave of death.

When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, He abode two days longer in the place where He was. But when that sickness ends in death, He begins His journey in the full and bright prospect of resurrection. And this makes His journey steady and undisturbed. And, as He approaches the scene of sorrow, His action is still the same. He replies again and again to the passion of Martha's soul, from that place where the knowledge of a power that was beyond that of death had, in all serenity, seated Him. And though He have to move still onward, there is no haste. For on Mary's arrival, He is still in the same place. where Martha had met Him. And the issue, as I need not say, comes in due season to vindicate this stillness of His heart, and this apparent tardiness of His journey.

Thus was it with Jesus here. The path of Jesus was His own. When man was bowed down in sorrow at the thought of death, He was lifted up in the sunshine of resurrection.

But the sense of resurrection, though it gave this peculiar current to the thoughts of Jesus, left His heart still alive to the sorrows of others. For His was not indifference but elevation. And such is the way of faith always. Jesus weeps with the weeping of Mary and her company. His whole soul was in the sunshine of those deathless regions which lay far away from the tomb of Bethany; but it could visit the valley of tears, and weep there with those that wept.

But again. — When man was lifted up in the expectation of something good and brilliant in the earth, His soul was full of the holy certainty that death awaits all here, however promising or pleasurable; and that honour and prosperity must be hoped for only in other and higher regions. The twelfth chapter shows us this.

When they heard of the raising of Lazarus, much people flocked together from Bethany to Jerusalem, and at once hailed Him as the King of Israel. They would fain go up with Him to the Feast of Tabernacles, and antedate the age of glory, seating Him in the honours and joys of the kingdom. The Greeks also take their place with Israel in such an hour. Through Philip, as taking hold of the skirt of a Jew (Zech. 8), they would see Jesus and worship. But in the midst of all this Jesus Himself sits solitary. He knows that earth is not the place for all this festivation and keeping of holy day. His spirit muses on death, while their thoughts were full of a kingdom with its attendant honours and pleasures. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone."

Such was the peculiar path of the spirit of Jesus. Resurrection was everything to Him. it was His relief amid the sorrows of life, and His object amid the promises and prospects of the world. It gave His soul a calm sunshine, when dark and heavy clouds had gathered over Bethany; it moderated and separated His affections, when the brilliant glare of a festive day was lighting up the way from thence to Jerusalem. The thought of it sanctified His mind equally amid grief and enjoyments around. Resurrection was everything to Him. It made Him a perfect pattern of that fine principle of the Spirit of God: "Let him that weepeth be as if he wept not, and he that rejoiceth as though he rejoiced not."

O for a little more of the same mind in us, beloved! — a little more of this elevation above the passing conditions and circumstances of life!

May the faith and hope of the Gospel, through the working of the indwelling Spirit, form the happiness and prospects of our hearts!

The Lord Jesus in John 1: 43

The Lord Jesus in John 1: 43 — John 2.

J. G. Bellett.

Section 12 of: Musings on Scripture, Vol. 3

The Lord may be traced in this scripture, as One Who ranges, if I may so express it, through different regions of divine glory, in the calm and perfect sense of this, that they all belong to Him, and are fully and properly His own.

In His intercourse with Nathanael, the Lord Jesus shows Himself to be the One Who touches the deep springs that are in man, conversing in power with the spirits of all flesh, remaking man also, re-creating him after His own mind, and stamping a new character upon him, as for eternity. He lets this Israelite know, that He had been with him under the fig-tree, ere Philip had called him, and that He was there with him, remodelling his mind and character, giving him, as it were, a new condition of being, making him, according to the divine oracle in Psalm 32, "an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile."

It was the Spirit of God that alone could thus converse with Nathanael's soul, and form him anew, as was done under the fig-tree. And thus it is, that Jesus here rises on the conscience of that Israelite in the glory of God; and under the weight and sense of that glory he worships Him.

This is a very wondrous moment. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Jesus, the power which Jesus uses in divine sovereign grace. The Lord Jesus is before us here, as the Jehovah of the day of Gideon. Jehovah addressed Gideon according to His own counsel about him, or as such an one as His own Spirit was making him. "Thou mighty man of valour," says the Lord to Gideon, though at that time he was but a poor man of Manasseh, threshing wheat in his father's threshing-floor at Ophrah. But, in the counsel of God, and by the energy of the Spirit, Gideon was the leader of the host of Israel against Midian; and the angel spoke in divine intelligence to him, or as the One who know the purpose of God respecting him. So is it here. Jesus addressed Nathanael, as Nathanael was under the operation of the Holy Ghost, imparting to him the character of a guileless Israelite. This operation had been going on with Nathanael in the solitude of the fig-tree, and that operation Jesus was divinely acquainted with.

Jesus was thus visiting the soul as God alone can visit it. He was touching the very springs within, and forming man after a new model. And in this most blessed and wondrous way, we track Jesus through one peculiar region of divine glory, and see Him there, in the power of His own Spirit, doing divine work. And He is there, as at home, as One that had title to be there without wrong or robbery. For what, I may ask, of divine prerogative is not His? What region of divine power may He not survey and measure as His own? Be they deep or high, be they where the Spirit of God alone can work, or be they where the finger of God alone can work, where the strength of God alone can be felt, or the wisdom of God alone can enter, Jesus will occupy them all, as all His own. And thus we find Him, as we pass on through this fine scripture.

There was, a marriage in Cana, and Jesus is invited. He goes — and He is there in His despised, rejected form, as among men. Man has objects worthier of his regard, and Jesus is nobody in the presence of the bridegroom, and the guests, and the governor of the feast. But, though the world knew Him not, it was made by Him. And accordingly He touches the springs of nature here, as afore, in the person of Nathanael, He had touched the spirits of men. He re-creates, he re-forms, the material found in the kingdom around, as He, had already done with the materials found in the kingdom within. He turns the water into wine, at this marriage feast in Cana.

This was what the finger of God, that once garnished the heavens, alone could do, — the voice of God that once said, "Let there be light, and there was light." But in this, Jesus is seen in another region. He is God still, but God acting in another place or sphere of power, in the kingdom of nature, and not in the secret place of the spirits of all flesh. But it is the same unspeakable blessed God of glory that we track, whether here or there, and Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the stranger on earth, Jesus the guest of the marriage at Cana, is He.

But do we, I ask, delight to see the Lord Jesus thus traversing regions where God alone could find and know His way? Is this sight of His glories grateful to us? With all the grace which the thick veil of His humiliation casts over it, our spirits should have the same communion with the person of Jesus as with the presence of God. For it is God, though manifest in the flesh, we know in Him, — and faith, therefore, worships. Man He was in deepest, fullest verity; of flesh and blood partaker; but He was the Word made flesh. And there is no region of the divine glory that he does not tread in the calm, assured power, and conscious right, which alone befit that only One to Whom they all belong.

But, again. He purifies the temple, His Father's house. But He does this as the God of the temple: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." This was building houses as God alone could build them: "Every house is builded of some man, but he that built all things is God." To build by creation, or by resurrection, as here, is divine architecture, and Jesus is a divine builder: "He spake of the temple of His body."

He had touched, as we saw, the springs of the spirit of man, and of nature, and now he touches the very sources or foundations of the power of death. And this is another region which belongs to God — part of His dominions. And Jesus, after this manner, as we still track Him through this scripture, is still God, God in the mighty strength of God down in the place of death, as before He had been God with the voice or finger of God abroad in the realm of nature, or with the Spirit of God, in the place of the spirits of all flesh. "In John's Gospel," as one has said, "Jesus is God comedown from heaven." Nature is not too wide a region for him, the spirit of man that is in him is not too secret a region for Him, or death and the grave too deep or profound or mighty a region. He visits each and all of them in divine grace, divine power, or divine triumph, and leaves every where the same witness that God Himself had been there.

We have, however, another path of the glory of Christ, still to follow in this scripture.

He had been doing miracles; and it is said, "Many believed on Him when they saw the miracles. that He did" — but then it is added, "Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man."

Here is God again. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I the Lord search the heart."

Jesus did not know man, or the springs and energies of corrupt nature, by reason of any fellowship with them, for He had no such fellowship. The prince of this world had nothing in Him. He was "that holy thing" — "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." But still, as this passage tells us, "He knew what was in man." He knew it all, and that it was deceitful above all things. He searched the hearts and tried the reins of the children of men. He knew all men, not one more than another, but He tried the reins; He knew what was in man. He, who by His prophet, had long ago declared that man was deceitful above all things, now (when He stood in the midst of men), would not commit Himself unto them."

This was divine acquaintance with man. This was full, radical, perfect understanding of man, after the manner of the divine mind. — Jesus was God in His knowledge of man. What Jehovah declared Himself to be by His prophet, Jesus is now declared to be by the evangelist. Jesus knew nothing of revolted man, or of the heart's corruption by sympathy, but He knew it all as God, Who searches the hearts and tries the reins of the children of men, to give every man according to his ways; as He does here; for He denies man His confidence, as "deceitful above all things" and thus, according to his ways, unworthy of that confidence.

Here again, then, the Lord Jesus takes the way of God, and ranges again through another region that belongs only to God.

We see Him thus, beloved. God He is, wherever God may be known or tracked. God, in the place of the spirits of all flesh; God, in the kingdom of nature; God, in victor-strength over death and the grave; God, as searching the hearts and reins of the children of men.

Jesus is there where God alone could be; and there, in all the settled ease and certainty of One Who knew those regions as His own. In grace unutterable He has known the homestead of the human family, and been an inhabitant of the village of Nazareth — the Son of man, He has lived and walked with the children of men, eaten of their bread and drunk of their cup, known their toils and their sorrows in all their reality, and at their hand suffered reproach and rejection and death, but He was equally at home where the Spirit of God alone could work, where the voice of God alone could be heard and command, where the strength of God alone could prevail, and where the light or knowledge of God alone could enter and search.

He ranges all the dominions of God, and is no trespasser. There is no robbery of a glory that is another's; it is His own. He is the Former of light, the Creator of the ends of the earth; the One who touches the springs of nature, and they come forth in forms such as His fingers fashion and His voice commands.

This is so; and we can track it all here in this scripture, without doubt or difficulty. But in the midst of all this, there is a thing betrayed, though incidentally, which, in hope of further profit, I will notice.

The Mother, in a general sense, knew the glory and power of the Lord, but she knew not the season or the moral order of that glory; and this is, wherever it appears, a great evil. She said to Him at the feast, "they have no wine," desirous that He should display Himself. She was as one that said, "Show thyself to the world" (John 7: 4). But she greatly erred. His time for this had not come. He will indeed, manifest His power in the souls of His elect now; He will, by His Spirit, visit Nathanael under the fig-tree; He will recreate a sinner, and give him a new character for eternity; and He will own such chosen ones, and know them, and address them in their new place, and read out to them as it were, the writing that is written of them in the Book of Life, as here in His earliest welcome of the man of Cana. He will do all this now; but He will not as yet shine in a glory that the world can appreciate. "My time," says He, "is not yet come." The Mother, therefore, did greatly err. A common error, and never more common than in this day in which we live. "show us a sign from heaven," was the craving of hearts that knew not the Christ, the Son of God, because the god of this world had blinded their eyes. But Jesus gave them another kind of sign altogether, "the sign of Jonas the prophet." He must be known in humiliation in such a world as this, if known aright. The Mother took the place and part of the world in this suggestion, "They have no wine," and she is rebuked — "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" Her worldly-mindedness is rebuked. Jesus could have no sympathy with it.

Not only, however, is she rebuked, she fails also, to see the glory that the Lord will display; and this has great meaning in it for us.

He makes the water wine. He supplies the table as the divine Lord, or Creator, of the feast. But the governor of the feast knew nothing of this, the bridegroom knew nothing of it, the guests knew nothing of it, the Mother was not in the secret or the vision of it; it was only the servants who had this secret in the midst of them, and the disciples who had this manifestation of glory made to them.

All this has great meaning in it for us. The Mother lost, in spirit, what she had, in the mind of the world, sought after. And so with us. As far as we are, in spirit, one with the world, so far must we be left without discoveries of the glory of the Son of God, or communion with Him. For He is not of the world; His time for manifestation in it is not yet come; it must be judged and re-fashioned, ere that can be. And according to the moral of such a truth as that, the Mother, on this occasion, is rebuked and is left without the manifestation of that glory in which the Son could shine and did shine. Those, and those only, who were in the due place, the servants and the disciples, are let into the secret, and get the vision; for they filled, morally, the very opposite place of the Mother. She was of the world, but they are nobody in the scene. The governor of the feast had his dignity, the bridegroom his joy, the guests their good cheer, and the Mother a mother's vanity and expectations; but the servants and the disciples are nothing, and seek for nothing beyond what service or discipleship called them to, and they learn the secret of His power, and behold the manifestation of His glory.

What a lesson for us in the midst of these discoveries of Him Who was "God manifest in the flesh"! We must awake, we that are sleeping with the world, if we would get more of the light of the Lord.

John, the Penman of the Apocalypse

John, the Penman of the Apocalypse.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

In the progress of this book we see John moved by different affections. He trembles in Rev. 1: 17; he weeps in Rev. 5: 4; he wonders with great admiration in Rev. 17: 6; he loses himself in worshipping delight in Rev. 19: 10 and Rev. 22: 8.

That is, he trembles in the presence of the judicial glory of the Son of man; he weeps at the sight of a sealed book, which, had it been unsealed, would have told secrets about Jesus; he marvels at the sight of Christendom's apostacy; he loses himself in joy when he hears of the marriage of the Lamb, and when he sees the Bride of the Lamb.

What suited affections! what creations of the Holy Ghost in the soul of a saint! He never trembles, after the One who was alive tells him not to fear. He that had the key's of death and hades encourages him: and that, surely, is enough for us.

Thoughts on John

Thoughts on John.

John 13: 23; John 19: 26; John 20: 2; John 21: 7-20.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 8 p. 302.

"The disciple whom Jesus loved." I have been just feeling that I can fully enjoy the truth which these words convey. And I would cherish such an experience, and ask the Lord to fix and enlarge it.

It is far from intimating that one is more interested than another in the grace or salvation of God, or loved with a more faithful and enduring love. But it does intimate that there may be a more personal attachment between the Master and some of His disciples than between Him and others. All, I may say, sat at supper with Him, while only one leaned then on His bosom. All continued with Him in His temptations, and are to receive the kingdom together, but only three were in the garden or on the holy hill with Him. For there is more personal oneness of thought and feeling in some than in others, more of that which, as among ourselves, draws the willing heart along.

If I look at a brother whose way savours much of that which I know Jesus must delight in, being meek, and self-renouncing, and unaffectedly humble, and withal devoted and unworldly, I may remember John, and see that disciple whom Jesus loved reflected in my brother. But then, how happy is it to remember that John himself was but one of a company whom the same Jesus had chosen and called, and bound to Himself for ever! Did John exclude Thomas or Bartholomew? Thomas and Bartholomew, in the great evangelical sense, were as much to Christ as John. The one was not a whit more accepted man than the other.

This is sure and blessed, as well as plain and simple. I may rejoice in it with all certainty. And if I have any love to Him who has called me to such assured and eternal blessedness, will I not rejoice in this, that He has an object in which He can take more delight than I must well know I and my way can afford Him?

Thus do I find reasons for enjoying that sentence, again and again repeated, "the disciple whom Jesus loved," and for delighting also in the thought that such a truth finds its illustration among the saints now, as it did in the midst of the apostles in earlier days.

The love with which we have to do is too perfect to be partial. It does not act irregularly or carelessly. We are all the objects of it. Thomas is not neglected because John is thus loved. But because this love is real, it is moved in this way by a John. But when I see a John leaning on Jesus while I myself am at a distance, let me have grace to look still, and to delight in the vision, and to say, "It is good for me to be here." If I am not in the same experience, still it is blessed to enjoy the thought that another is there. Peter was gladdened by the vision of a glory in Moses and Elias, though it was all beyond him. So is my happy and thankful spirit to entertain the thought of my more heavenly brother pressing the bosom of our common Lord. J. G. B.

Jonah

Jonah

J. G. Bellett.

Section 1 of: Musings on Scripture, Volume 3

Walters, 1887.

All that I desire to do upon the Book of Jonah the prophet is, to suggest a few things which have struck my own mind with interest, leaving the subject to the further meditations of my brethren, trusting withal, that to whatever measure of knowledge we may, any of us, attain, it may prove to be the nurture and strength of the kingdom of God within us.

Jonah prophesied about the time of Jeroboam II. king of Israel. He was the witness that "mercy rejoiceth against judgment," for he foretold of gracious things to Israel, though the people were still a guilty and rebellious people. As we read in 2 Kings 14: 23, "In the 15th year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam. the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years; and be did that which was evil in the right of the Lord; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin; he restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel which He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah the son of Amittai the prophet, Which was of Gath-hepher."

But in the book which bears his name, there is no notice of this prophecy. It opens, however, with something that is in character with it. It opens with the Lord giving Jonah a commission to go and preach against Nineveh, and Jonah's refusal to do so, because, as he tells us himself afterwards, he knew that the Lord was "gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repented Him of the evil," (Jonah 4: 2). He had been taught to know that this was the way of the God of Israel, by his experience of His late doings in Samaria, and he thus suspected that such would be His way now in Nineveh. But his Jewish temper, so to call it, was strong in him. He could not consent to be the bearer of mercy to the Gentiles. He had, without reserve, published the good tidings in Samaria, but he could not consent to do the same now in Nineveh of the Gentiles.

All this disclosure of the hidden springs of the prophet's disobedience is very significant. He had fled from the presence of the Lord, but enmity to the Gentiles was the real cause of it all. And thus we may say, Like prophet, like people. Jonah's sin is Israel's sin. Israel has always refused the thought, that the Gentiles could stand in the favour of God; and in delineating their sin, "forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles" is noticed by the apostle as the last great feature in the full form of their sin (1 Thess. 2: 16). Then the wrath came upon them to the uttermost, as now upon the prophet. He refuses to go to Nineveh, believing that God would turn the curse into a blessing; but turning his back upon the Lord, goes down to Joppa, and there takes a ship to Tarshish. The wrath, however, comes upon him to the uttermost. Vengeance suffers him not to live. A wind from the Lord lies heavily upon him, and upon those who sail with him, and the ship was like to be broken.

I need not here speak particularly of the excellent conduct of his shipmates towards him, or of his own indifference, for a time, to the fact that his back was turned upon the Lord. Both however are remarkable. He was fast asleep, while they were crying out for fear. But he is soon made to hear not merely the roar of the wind, but the voice of God in the wind, and the sentence of death against himself. It was the voice of the Lord that was then upon the waters, and the sleeper is awakened from the sleep of a blunted conscience; he bows his head under the righteous judgment of the Lord, and will have himself offered as a sacrifice for the safety of those who were sailing with him. He takes the sentence of death unto himself. He now knows that he was the Achan in the camp, the ὁ κατέχων, that which letted the mercy of God from reaching the mariners. They were suffering; but his sin, he now sees, was "the accursed thing" that caused it all, and must be taken away. "Take me up," says he, "and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." It was a sin unto death and must not be prayed for. The mariners, in their kindness, may row hard, and harder still, but all will not do. The sea cries, "give, give." The fire on the altar demands the victim. A sin unto death has been committed, and all struggle or rowing for life is vain. Joshua in such a case may lie on the ground, and cry to the Lord all the day long, but it will not do. (Joshua 7) The accursed thing must be taken away. Jonah must be cast overboard, into the belly of hell, as Achan must be stoned; and then, and not till then, Ai, the city of the enemy, shall fall, and the haven, the desire of the mariners shall be reached.

Accordingly our prophet is now cast into the sea. But the sea will not be allowed to be the pit of destruction to him, but he shall find rather a city of refuge, or hiding place for a season there. The belly of a fish is prepared to receive him from the sea, and there he abides. Like every city of refuge, the whale's belly was Jonah's shelter in the midst of judgment, — the place of life to him in the region of death. And there he talks of salvation. "Thou hast brought up my life from corruption," says he, "O Lord, my God . . . salvation is of the Lord." He had before, when in the ship, heard the thunder of judgment, but now in the fish's belly, it is the still small voice of mercy. He looks to God's temple, the appointed place (2 Chr. 6), and he knows that grace and salvation are God's way in His sanctuary. There by faith he surveys the brazen altar for the guilty sinner, and the golden altar for the accepted sinner, and the mercy-seat for the Lord to sit on. And then he knows that sacrifices of thanksgiving and the payment of his vows are before Him, and he can talk of life in the midst of death. "I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again towards thy holy temple. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains, the earth with her bars was about me for ever, yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord, my God." With as much certainty of heart, though not with the same comfort, he knows salvation as well as though he were on dry land again. As secure he is, though not as happy, by this distant sight of the temple by faith, as though he had been in Jerusalem. "How say ye to my soul," in spirit he says, "flee as a bird to your mountain? . . . The Lord is in his holy temple." (Ps. 11) This was his joy.

And this is the manslayer's joy in every city of refuge. The avenger of blood is on the foot, it is true, but the gates of the city have closed upon him, and there he tastes and knows his full salvation, with the sure prospect of his home and kindred again. And every city of refuge which we trace in scripture, has thus its peculiar joy as well as safety.

Noah in the ark was in a city of refuge, and there he was as safe as though he had been in the new world. But he had his peculiar joy there also, as well as safety. He opened the window, and let out the raven and the dove, and the dove returned to him with an olive-leaf, the pledge that the new earth should soon be his in peace and fruitfulness. He could not, it is true, go forth till the Lord gave him leave, — he could not open the door, but he might the window of the ark, and from thence he looked out and saw the uncovered laud again; and this was his joy and the exercise of his heart, though still amid the desolations of judgment. — The blood-stained door was a city of refuge to the Israelite, while the angel of death was passing through Egypt. But there, he fed upon the Lamb, every morsel of which told him of his full security; and he might have looked at the staff in his hand, and the shoe on his foot, as, the token that the time was short. — The wilderness was another city of refuge to all Israel. For judgment was before and behind them. In the midst of death they were in life as in every city of refuge. Egypt behind had just been judged, and the Amorites before, were just about to be judged, — the waters were rising to cover the one land, as they had already covered the other. But Israel was in their refuge in the wilderness, as safe as though they had been in Canaan, and there learnt wonders of grace and glory. — Rahab's house with the scarlet line in the window, was another blood-sprinkled door, or city of refuge; but there though Jericho was the accursed place, she knew her safety, and to the joy of her heart (for she had loved and counselled for them) she might have looked on her kindred and known them to be as safe as herself. — And so at the end. Their chambers will be a city of refuge to the remnant, while the indignation passes by. "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee, hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast" (Isa. 26: 20). But then also they will have large exercise of heart. The Psalms give us much of this, I believe. In the 29th we see something of it. There the voice of the Lord is abroad, full of power and majesty, falling upon the waters and upon the cedars, and dividing the flames of fire. But the remnant all the while have found their sanctuary in God, and there in His temple, like Jonah, they thus in spirit sing — "the Lord sitteth upon the flood, yea the Lord sitteth king for ever; the Lord will give strength unto His people with peace" (Ps. 29: 10, 11).

And so the believer now. He sojourns in a judged world, but he is in the Lord his refuge, and he can there talk of salvation. He dwells in the shadow of death, but he can sing of life. The Spirit of God could enter where Jonah was, and teach him the ways of the temple; and so has the same Spirit, the Holy Ghost, come to abide in the saints, though still in the place of uncleanness and death, to tell them of a far richer blessing, and of a more glorious love than ever Adam knew in the unsoiled walks of Eden.

It is the way of our God thus to do abundantly more than merely repair the breach. He makes the eater yield meat to us, and the strong man sweetness. That is God's riddle rather than Samson's. Jonah is now made to interpret it, as it were, for he is brought home to God with a new song in his month, and with richer experience of God's love than ever he had, and that too, in the belly of the whale; and then when this revelation of grace is thus made his to the joy of his soul, he is cast out again on the dry land.

Thus was it with our prophet, and all this judgment and mercy of God with him, this process of death and resurrection lead him out, not merely to deliverance, but to the obedience of faith also. "He arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord." And this it always does, whether in Jonah or in us. We rise to newness of life. "If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." We were simply born of the flesh before, but now we are joined to the Lord, and one Spirit with Him.

We have thus all of us our common interest in these Jonah-mercies. Jonah is a sign to us all. But I am, of course, aware that our blessed Lord has claimed His likeness to Jonah also, saying in His doctrine, "for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." He thus found His type in our prophet, as the one who died and was buried, and rose again the third day. But He dwells much more on Jonah being a sign to others, than the type of Himself. He speaks of both Jonah, and the Son of man as signs; Jonah to the Ninevites, and both Jonah and the Son of man to that generation of Israel (Matt. 12: 39; Matt. 16: 4; Luke 11: 29, 30). And this is a doctrine of great value. The death and resurrection of Jonah, was a sign to the Ninevites of what the Lord required from them, and of the way in which He would deal with them; and so the death and resurrection, whether of Jonah or the Son of man, is a sign to Israel of what the Lord expects from them, and of the manner in which He will deal with them.

For as one who had died and risen again, Jonah now goes and preaches against Nineveh; and as such a one he was a sign to them of what that preaching should lead them to, and of what it required of them. And we find that the sign was answered in them. On going to them the prophet at once puts them under sentence of death. "Within forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown." And at once they hear these words as the sentence of death against themselves, as Jonah had heard it in the roar of the wind before, and they bow their head under it as he did, accepting the punishment of their sins, and then, like Jonah, enter the grave, taking sackcloth on them, from the least to the greatest of them, from man and beast — the king himself rising from his throne, and sitting in ashes, the place of death, and thus were they planted in the likeness of His death. And not only so, but they break off their sins by righteousness, and walk in newness of life, and thus were planted also in the likeness of His resurrection. This was repenting at the preaching of Jonah, or answering the sign of Jonah; then the Lord bids mercy to rejoice against judgment in their behalf, as He had in Jonah's: He repents of the evil which He had said He would do unto them, and He did it not, as He had brought Jonah again on the dry land out of the whale's belly.

Thus was "the sign of Jonah" answered in and by the Ninevites, and so must it be in Israel, that generation to which Jesus preached. And part of the sign is already witnessed in them. Sentence of death was, in principle, passed on them, when Jesus rose from the dead. But they have not yet heard it, and bowed their heads under it. To this day they are buried out of sight, in the grave where is no remembrance of them with God (Isa. 26: 19; Ezek. 37; Hosea 13). They are as dry bones in the valley, or as a tree in the dead and leafless winter season (Isa. 6: 13), because they have not repented. And there is no hope for them, but the repentance of the Ninevites. They must bow their heads under the punishment of their sins as the Ninevites did. The sign of Jonah, or of the Son of man, must be fully answered in them, as the sign of Jonas was in the Ninevites. It is not as yet so answered, and thus the Ninevites still judge them. But we know that it will be by-and-bye. As Jonah's sin has been the sign of Israel's sin, so will his repentance be of their repentance. They will mourn every family apart, and their wives apart. In their affliction they will seek the Lord, and say, "come, and let us return to the Lord, for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up; after two days He will revive us; in the third day He will raise us up and we shall live in His sight." They will thus identify themselves, in spirit, with the death and resurrection of their Lord; and then He will open their graves, and bring them up out of their graves, and say, "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise, Awake, and sing ye that dwell in dust" (Isa. 26; Ezek. 37; Hosea 6). And then will "the sign of Jonah" be answered also in Israel, as it was answered in Nineveh.

It is death and resurrection which both Jonah and the Son of man signify; and death and resurrection is God's principle in a world where the power of death has entered. The ancient penalty "in the day thou eatest thou shalt die," has never been rescinded. Every thing in some form or another has suffered it; and it has been met with infinite value for us by the Son of God. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment;" and Jesus has met this appointment. Death had its way against Him, and judgment, the judgment of sin, was upon Him. His soul was made an offering for sin; but by death He destroyed him that had the power of death, and rose with new life for those who had been subject to his bondage.

This was glorious triumph over all the strength of the enemy; and this was also the entire vindication of God. And all now that has any rest, must rest on this death and resurrection of the Son of God; and all that has life to God, or that will have any place in His system of glory by and bye, must have both in the death and resurrection character. Death and resurrection may introduce to different order and departments of glory, but it is the common entrance to them all. The leprous man and the leprous house in Israel were to be cleansed by the same ordinance of the slain and the living birds. Of course the man was more worthy than the house; but the Lord of Israel esteemed the house as well as the man a fit subject for the great reconciliation. Atonement was to be made for the one as well as for the other (Lev. 14: 53). Both were equally liable to the taint of leprosy; but the very same provision was made for the cleansing of both, and for the restoring of both, to their several places in God's system in Israel. And that was an ordinance which vividly, and without controversy, sets forth the virtues of the death and resurrection of the Son of God.

This, I do judge, is very striking: — God's care for the house as well as for the man. And here I may observe that the principle of the divine procedure is always the principle of the conduct of faith. As it is written, "be ye followers (imitators) of God as dear children" (Eph. 5: 1). It is, therefore, as thus being God's principle — His necessary principle, we may say to His praise, in a death-stained world, that death and resurrection are so often illustrated in the histories of God's servants. We find it more or less through all the line of the Old Testament worthies, as I may call them. Abel and Seth together present death and resurrection. Noah was carried, through the region of death and judgment, into the place of life that lay beyond it. Abraham had the promises, and was heir of all the land; but he walked in the place as a stranger and pilgrim, not having so much as to set his foot on. Joseph was to stand above his brethren; but he is first cast into the pit and then into the dungeon, as under sentence of death, till at length he rises into the glories of Egypt, which, mystically, were the heavenly and earthly glories of the kingdom. Moses was "drawn out" from the place of destruction, and afterwards as a dead and risen man, like our Jonah, preaches to his brethren (Ex. 2: 13); and again, after another burial as it were, in Midian, rises a second time to be the redeemer of Israel. David came forth from contempt and obscurity to be the slayer of the giant and the deliverer of Israel; and again, as from death in the wilderness, to rule the land as God's king in Zion.

And among all these, and others like them, we may especially notice Job among the patriarchs. Death and resurrection was the lesson he had to learn in his own soul, and to illustrate before us in his history. He had to take the sentence of death in himself, that he might not trust in himself but in Him that raises the dead, and gives brighter glory at the end than at the beginning.

In all these distinguished witnesses of God and His ways we see this principle exhibited as God's principle. And so it is, from the Son of God in the highest, down to the lowest orders in creation — all stand or are to stand before God as dead and risen, that the power of the enemy may be gloriously overthrown, and the holy honour of His own name, "the living God," be vindicated for ever.

And scripture thus teaches us this.-

1. — The Lord Himself is to take all His glories, as the One that was dead and is alive again. He is the Head of the church, the Heir of the sure mercies of David, and the Lord of creation as the Second Man, by this title (Col. 1: 18; Acts 13: 34; Heb. 2: 6-9). The thought of this His title to every thing passed across the mind of Jesus when the Greeks, the Gentiles, came to the feast desiring to see Him. He then owned that but for His death He could take nothing (John 12: 24).

2. — The church has her peculiar life and glory in this way also. The saints were all dead in trespasses and sins, but have also been quickened together with Christ and raised up, and seated on high in Him; and by and by are, in body, to be fashioned after the likeness of His risen or glorious body (Eph. 2, Phil. 3).

3. — Israel, as we have already noticed, are to stand in the same character, brought from their graves, and raised up as those that had slept in dust.

4. — The nations will be, after Israel's revival, as "life from the dead" (Rom. 11: 15), as the Ninevites repent and come into blessing after Jonah himself is raised up. Indeed it is as the dead and risen one, that Jerusalem will be the mother of them all. The "barren," the "widow," the "desolate," is to have many more children than she which had a husband (Isa. 54).

5. — The creation itself will, in the "world to come," return to rest and beauty, as after the dead and wintry season of "this present evil world." The world to come will in principle be a risen world, the risen Son of man having it all in subjection under Him. Now it is all groaning and travailing in pain, but it shall be delivered into glorious liberty. (Rom. 8)

Thus is death and resurrection the great rule of all blessing and glory; and this is the sign of Jonah and of the Son of man, and God's pervading principle through the ranks and departments of this death-tainted system of ours. And, beloved, it was the apostle's purpose, and should be ours, to know more and more of the power of this principle. (Phil. 3) In Christ we are already apprehended for the full fruit of His death and resurrection; but we should be as though we had not ourselves apprehended it. In Him we are complete and perfect, but we should be as though we had not attained neither were already perfect. Liberty and holiness, joy in the Lord, and life in the Spirit, would then flourish together in our souls, as wellwatered gardens.

To teach this, as God's great principle with every thing, is the purpose, I judge, of the history of Jonah the prophet. I have hitherto followed it to the close of the third chapter, seeing the death and resurrection both of the Jewish prophet and of the Gentile city. And that is the formal close of the book. The fourth chapter then comes as a kind of moral or appendix.

But on opening this deeply interesting chapter, let me observe, beloved, that we have, each one of us, to do with the Lord as well in the secrecy of His own presence within, as in the activities of His service abroad. We may have run the appointed course, and done the Lord's business, but this is not all. The Lord may still have many a personal question with us, and have to speak with us in the cool of the day. There may have been many a taint in the spirit of the service within, while without all may have seemed as splendid and devoted as the mission of a prophet to the first city of the Gentiles. And these will have at the end, to be brought before the Lord. Workings in the heart, hidden from the eye of man, will then have to be brought fully under the eye and ear of God.

It is so now with our prophet. Nineveh had been visited of Jonah, but Jonah must now be visited of the Lord, — not to destroy, we know full well, but to chasten and humble, and thus to make him more and more partaker of the divine holiness. He had done the service abroad. He had gone the way of Nineveh, and fulfilled the word of the Lord there. But there is still a question for the presence of God as yet unsettled. There were lustings within that must now be brought forth and made a show of openly. He is still, as we find here, angry because of mercy to the Gentiles,* and he goes outside the city of Nineveh, and sits down there a homeless exposed stranger all in sorrow and displeasure, saying, "It is better for me to die than to live." There he makes himself a booth to sit under, and the Lord then comes, in the secret of His own presence, to talk with him of his sin. He prepares a gourd to come up over his head, and be a shadow to deliver him from his grief. But He scarcely allows him to find comfort in the gourd, ere He prepares a worm to smite it and wither it, and then a vehement east wind and the sun to heat upon the head of Jonah, till again in anger and displeasure he says as before, "it is better for me to die than to live."

*I need not, I assume, prove that I am warranted in treating Nineveh as the representative of the Gentiles. It was, we know, the capital of that kingdom which was, in Jonah's day, the chief power In the world.

Then the Lord catches him in the toils which He had now woven around him in consummate and divine skill. He convicts him out of his own mouth, and makes his own words correct him. He shows him that he cannot retain both his proud and his angry sorrows. He must cease either to grieve for mercy to Nineveh, or for judgment on the gourd. If he will give up his anger because of the withered gourd, let him do so. But if he still judge it well to be angry on that account, as he says he does, even unto death, then he must cease to be angry, because of preserved Nineveh; for Nineveh was to the Lord just what the gourd had been to the prophet, and if the prophet would fain spare the gourd, he must allow the Lord to spare Nineveh. "Thou hast had pity on the gourd," says the Lord to him, "for the which thou hast not laboured, neither makest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city wherein are more than six-score thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?"

With these words the Lord ends, leaving that claim of His to Nineveh, its little ones and its cattle, upon the heart and conscience of Jonah. The echo, as it were, of those sweet words is left in our ears, as we close this beautiful little book.

But however these words may have wrought on the prophet, as we may judge and hope they did with power, we have our blessed interest in them, and our exceeding great and precious comfort by them. For from this moral or parabolic action between the Lord and His servant, we learn that the Lord's desire is still to the works of His hands, that He would fain be refreshed and rest again in the creatures which He, of old, fashioned and made. He made them at the beginning for His glory and delight. For a moment He was allowed, so to speak, to rejoice in them. He looked on everything that He had made, and beheld it to be all very good (Gen. 1: 31). He took His sabbath in His creatures, and walked with man in a garden of delight that was in the midst of them.

But all was soon beguiled from Him. The worm at the root of God's own gourd withered it. He that, had the power of death did this, and left the Lord, as it were, a homeless stranger in His own creation (like Jonah outside Nineveh), a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry but for a night.

But they are still His creatures, and His desire is toward them. He seeks them all for Himself, the little ones and the cattle, as well as the cities and their people. All form to Him what the foliage of the gourd formed to the prophet, a shade and refreshing, where without it all is homelessness and exposure. And He would fain take His rest, His sabbath in creation again, as He here would have Jonah and all of us know.

And He will do it. He will accomplish the desire of His heart, for who can let Him? He will reconcile all things unto Himself by Jesus Christ. Israel and the nations shall revive and dwell in peace; the earth shall yield her increase, the hills, the floods, and the trees of the wood rejoicing before Jehovah the King; and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea making His name excellent in all the earth. For He has said of them, when the Branch grows out of Jesse's roots, "the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them, and the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox" (Isa. 11: 1-7). He pronounced them all good at their creation, the living creatures which the waters brought forth, the winged fowl, the cattle and the creeping things, as well as man. As here He would have Jonah knew that He valued them, and would spare them and have them, as well as Nineveh and its people.

And of this final redemption and joy of the creatures we have had many pledges. Noah carried them, "two of every sort," with himself and his household through the waters into the new world; and the same covenant, which settled him and his seed after him in it, provided equally for them (Gen. 9: 10). Joseph purchased all the cattle as well as the people of Egypt for Pharaoh (Gen. 47: 17). Moses redeemed them all out of Egypt afterwards, when it had corrupted itself, and was no longer the land of Joseph's glory (Ex. 10: 26, 12: 38); and he sanctified them all, under the law, to Jehovah, the fruit of the land and of the cattle, as well as the fruit of man, thus showing us that Jehovah claimed the whole system as His own (Ex. 12: 28, 29; Lev. 19: 23-25). The first-born of beast as of man was sanctified to Himself (Num. 8: 17). Jesus claimed lordship of them all, the beasts of the field, and the fish of the sea, and they owned His dominion (Matt. 17, 21) and in the coming kingdom, they shall still own Him, for all shall be in subjection to Him, and join in the joy of redemption, beasts and all cattle praising the Lord (Ps. 148: 10; Heb. 2: 8; Rev. 5: 13.)

These are sweet pledges of the Lord's value for His creatures, and that He will still clothe Himself with them all. And of this His care for them and His desire toward them He here speaks to Jonah. And He does more than that. He lets Jonah further learn that He had laboured for them; that, unlike Jonah and His gourd, He would bring back His creatures to Him at the cost of His own toil (Jonah 4: 10). And so we know it is. For "all things" are to be a part of that great reconciled system, for which the blood of His dear Son has been shed; as at the beginning they were all a part of that great created system, for which the six days' work was entered on.

It is our joy, beloved, to know this, — to know that the blessed God still values all His creatures, and has, so to speak, "laboured" for them, and paid a price for them. The ancient scene of His delight and glory may be disturbed and defiled, as we know it is; but as He once rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, so will He again; and as He once had the image of His dominion and glory over them all, so will He again in the Son of man and in "the world to come." The Lord did indeed of old take His joy in them, as I have noticed, and His glory was displayed by them. Every succeeding evening and morning witnessed His joy, for then He paused and lingered over His works, as they grew under His hand, that He might see them and pronounce them to be good, according to the desire and good pleasure of His own will; and when all were made, He looked at them all together as good, and took His fall sabbath in them. And the morning stars sang their joy and His praise. Then was His gourd a sweet and refreshing gourd to Him, as Jonah's at the first. But a worm began soon to work at the root. For all this rested on Adam, and Adam was beguiled by him that had the power of death. Tares were then sown in the Lord's fair field of fruits and flowers. An enemy did that. But so it was, and the Lord had to repent that He had made man in the earth. Then did He look a second time at the work of His hands, and, behold, it was corrupt; and it repented Him that He had made it, and it grieved Him at His heart (Gen. 6: 6). Then the gourd of the Lord became the withered gourd indeed. But His creatures are still His. The field does not belong to the enemy, though he may waste and defile it for a season; and the gourd must flourish and bud again to reward the toil of Him Who has laboured for it. And it will then put forth a more fragrant smell than ever. Creation shall return to the Lord, to give Him more joy and more praise than ever.

He will joy in it as in the hand of One in Whom His soul delighteth, and by it not merely the skill of His hand but the riches of His love shall be praised. To Him as well as to us shall the eater then yield meat, and the strong man sweetness. The blood of Jesus shall efface the trail of the serpent. That will give "all things" in "the reconciliation," a sweet smelling savour with our God, and over such a sacrifice, He can say, in the deep satisfaction of His heart, "I will not again curse the ground for man's sake" (Gen. 8: 21).

And of this we have had early notice in the history of Noah. When Adam was created, he received a command to replenish the earth and subdue it. But we do not read of the way in which he owned his Creator in the midst of all this blessing, nor did the Lord God then say, that He would not curse the ground which He had made. But when Noah came forth of the ark, as man redeemed (not like Adam merely created) for the earth, he at once takes the earth as debtor to the blood of Jesus for it. He raises his altar and offers upon it of every clean beast and of every clean fowl; and the blood of these victims (in type the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God) the Lord smells as a savour of sweet smell, and it awakens in His heart thoughts of abiding complacency in the earth. The blood on the altar, and not the evil of man, governs His counsels, and they are all counsels of grace (Gen. 8: 21). And then He again gives Noah dominion of the earth, with the sign of the covenant of abiding complacency in the earth and its creatures, signifying that by the virtue of this blood, though not before in the hand of Adam, the creation could be established without fear or curse again. And then He gives Noah also, not only the herb of the field, but the flesh of every thing that lived to be meat for him (Gen. 9: 3), in token that his life now rested on the flesh and blood of another, that it was no longer the life of a creature merely, but of a creature redeemed, and redeemed by blood. Thus both he and his inheritance now stood only in the value of the blood of Jesus; but, standing in that, they stood secure.

All this was very significant, telling us of the character of that kingdom which is to arise in the last days, when the true Noah takes the dominion. Then shall the earth and its creatures be established in the covenant of abiding rest and certainty, the rainbow encircling the throne that is then to rule over all. And then shall the Lord God rest in His full complacency in it all, for it shall all stand in the sweet savour of the sacrifice which the Son of His love has offered, i.e. in the great reconciliation. As it is written, "and having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, by Him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven" (Col. 1: 20).

And thus will God's praise and delight spring from the same source which gives us sinners our everlasting security, and puts a richer and sweeter song into our lips than that which awakened the morning stars, when the foundations of the old creation were laid. Such is the divine skill, weaving God's glory and our security together, and His delights with our delights for ever His own grace must account for this, for nothing else can, passing (as it does), all the fondest thoughts of our hearts. And then this redeemed creation, this gourd of our God, shall bud again, and be still in its freshness before Him. The worm, the power of death, shall not touch it to wither it; but under its shadow will He find His sabbath again, as it is written, "thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever, the Lord shall rejoice in His works" (Ps. 104: 30, 31).

"Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him? or the son of man that thou makest account of him?"

Joseph

Joseph.

Gen. 37 - 47.

He "that was separated from his brethren."

BT vol. 18 p. 17 etc.

For judging the history of Joseph to be typical or allegorical, like that of Hagar and Ishmael and a thousand others in scripture, we have clear warrant of the Holy Ghost. See Acts 7. But without this warrant, the use which in the New Testament is made of the Old Testament narratives, might authorise us to look for some mystery or "hidden wisdom," in none of them so strongly marked as this.

I propose now simply to follow out the series of events in this history, as given us in these chapters, briefly unfolding what I judge to be their mystical or hidden meaning. May the Lord, in such sweet and heavenly labours, both enlarge and control our minds!

Genesis 37

— This chapter gives us the first part or section in the history.

Joseph here signalises himself as the righteous or separated one, and as such provokes the enmity of his wicked brethren. The light makes manifest the deeds of darkness, and the darkness hates it, as Joseph's Lord was afterwards hated of the world, for He testified that its deeds were evil. And this enmity is only further moved by tokens of the divine favour which are put upon the righteous one. Joseph was a younger son, no way entitled according to the flesh to distinguished favour; yet the Lord marks him out as the appointed heir of blessing and glory, and Joseph speaks of the goodness he had found, and of the high purposes of God concerning him. But his brethren did not care for any divine purpose which interfered with their pride. He might be the one that was to receive the kingdom, but they said, "We will not have this man to reign over us." As Cain had slain his brother Abel because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous, so it is now. Joseph's brethren envy him; and again when in the field together, like another Cain, they take counsel together whether to slay him, to cast him into the pit, or sell him to strangers. And they do sell him for twenty pieces of silver. And they who could thus trespass against their innocent brother's life, easily deem it a light thing to wound their aged father's heart. "This have we found," said they of Joseph's coat which they sent to Jacob besmeared with blood: "know now whether it be thy son's coat. or no." And thus was their offence of high and double bearing — they sinned against their aged father, and their righteous unoffending brother.

In all this we have the stiff-necked and uncircumcised Israel betraying and murdering the just one. His father had sent Joseph to his brethren to enquire after their welfare. But it was not as the bearer of kind tidings that they saw him or received him, but "behold this dreamer cometh." "Come therefore and let us slay him." So afterward toward the Greater than Joseph; it was not as the minister of grace and messenger of love, but as the envied Heir of the vineyard that they looked on Him with malicious heart, and said, "come let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be ours." His love was refused, and for envy His brethren delivered Him unto death. For His love they were His adversaries. There might be one in the counsel who would plead for the prisoner, as Reuben did, who would not consent to the counsel and deed of them (Luke 23: 51, John 7: 51); but this could prevail nothing. Thirst for blood may yield to covetousness, but the evil heart, in some of its desires against the righteous one, must have its way. For thirty pieces of silver they sold Him to strangers. They crucified Him that was the Father's elect One, and all His delight. "They pleased not God, and were contrary to all men;" they sinned against God and their brother.

Genesis 38

— This chapter gives us the second part in the history.

The spirit of revelation here interrupts the course of Joseph's history, in order to give us a view of his brethren during Joseph's separation from them. And what is the view we get of them here? Just filling up the measure of their sins, making terms with the uncircumcised, and defiling the holy seed.

And so it is now. The holy seed has mingled itself with the seed of men, and all in Israel is corruption and uncleanness. They have profaned the covenant of their fathers' as Judah here does; and the Lord has been a witness between them, and the wife of their youth. Judah dealt treacherously and profaned the holiness of the Lord, marrying the daughter of a strange god. He wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh passed from him. (Jer. 11: 15.) So Israel has played the harlot with many lovers, and is now, while Jesus is separated from them, filling up the measure of their sins.

But while the Spirit of God thus for a moment raises the veil, and we see the abominations that are now done in Israel, we are given also to catch the faint glimpse of distant blessing. Judah is brought to know and confess his sin; the pledges of his full abomination are produced and owned by him in the spirit of a repentant one; and then "mercy rejoiceth against judgment." Pharez comes forth, and he is the second Jacob, the supplanter, who, in spite of fleshly title in his elder brother, gets the birthright. The kingdom suffers violence at his hand, and he takes it by force. And from this Pharez comes the true Inheritor of the blessing, the righteous Supplanter of every usurper, the one that shall prevail, and whose kingdom shall stand for ever. (Matt. 1: 3.)

Genesis 39 - 41

— These chapters together form the third part in the history.

Here we see Joseph filling up the measure of his sorrow, while his brethren are filling up the measure of their sins. He in exile preserves his purity and separation to God, like a Nazarite purer than snow and whiter than milk, while they at home are defiling the covenant. God is with him, and man against him. He takes his place in the cloud of witnesses, suffering for righteousness' sake. For conscience toward God he endures grief, suffering wrongfully. But the Lord is still with him. God shows that His covenant was with him, and that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed; for Potiphar first, and then the keeper of the prison, were made to prove this in their own persons. The archers are sorely grieving him, and shooting at him; but his bow abides in strength, and the arms of his hands are made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. He may be persecuted of men, but God will not forsake him, but give him favour in the sight of strangers in spite of all the dishonour and humiliation to which the wickedness of his kindred and others may reduce him. And all this "affliction of Joseph" is made the discipline of God, Who loved him; for as we read, "the word of God tried him" (Ps. 105: 19). This tribulation under the divine hand was made to work patience, and by it the crown was brightening for him.

And we find Joseph not only distinguished with favour, but in some sense glorified also in his prison. For though power in the earth is not his yet, so that he could burst his prison doors, yet we see him glorified as a prophet, knowing the secret of God.*

*The butler's treatment of Joseph seems to be referred to by the prophet, as exhibiting the conduct of those that are at ease in Zion, and thus is a warning to us (Amos 6: 1-6).

These dreams of the butler and baker were "according to the interpretation," words which imply that they were of God. For dreams have two sources; either God sends them, or the multitude of business (Joel 2: 28, Ecc. 5: 3). In them God may reveal His mind, or they may be simply "divers vanities," the fruit of our own passions or necessities (Ecc. 5: 7, Isa. 29: 8).

And thus was it with the Lord in the day of His sorrow, and still with Him in measure in His sympathy for the church, for in that He is still saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" In Jesus, as in Joseph, it was clearly shown that, though in weakness and rejection, God's covenant was with Him, that He was God's object, all blessing passing through His hand, though in shame and poverty. And even beyond this. Jesus was in His day of sorrow, like Joseph, glorified as a Prophet (Luke 4: 15). And so in His saints now in measure. They may be despised, but they "have the mind of Christ," they are in the secrets of God, they know the love of the Father, the judgment of the world, and the coming kingdom and power of Jesus. And of these secrets they bear witness to sinners, as Joseph told of the secrets of God to Pharaoh, and his servants. They tell both of judgment and of mercy, as he did.

Such are the ways of Christ, and the saints now. They are among strangers, in a world that is but foreign to them, and where they have no citizenship. They may be poor, "silver and gold having none." lonely, in prison, and forgotten there, like Joseph. But "God is with them." Patience with self-denial, and a holy keeping of their Nazaritism or separation to God, is their calling, and their present praise. But even in the humiliation, they have "treasures of wisdom and knowledge" in Christ. They can interpret the dreams that tell out God's purposes; the voices of the prophets and apostles are their delight and their counsellors.

But in the close of all this we see Joseph not only as at the first comforted in sorrow, but brought out of sorrow — not only glorified as a prophet, but introduced into the full confidence of him who held the royal power, and authority in the earth. Pharaoh was then the lord of Egypt, and Egypt was then the lady of kingdoms; and Pharaoh gives Joseph authority to go over all the land, as the great executor of all rule, desiring that no man in Egypt was to lift up hand or foot without him. Joseph receives the king's ring, and rides in the second chariot. He is made lord of Pharaoh's house, and ruler of all his substance, to bind his princes at his pleasure, and teach his senators wisdom (Ps. 105).

He becomes the sole treasurer and dispenser of the resources of the whole earth, the one who alone could open and shut those storehouses on which his once injurious brethren, and all the world were soon to become entire dependents for preservation in the earth. Only in the throne was Pharaoh greater than he; and all this Pharaoh makes him and gives him, because he owned that the Spirit of God was in him, that he had been distinguished as "the friend of God," knowing His ways, and was entitled to be called "the revealer of secrets."

This was indeed glory among the strangers. The poor was thus raised from the dust, and the beggar from the dunghill, to be set even above princes. But this was not all. Joseph must have joy as well as glory among them, and the king gives him a wife, a lady of honour, and Joseph becomes the husband and father of a family in this strange land. Like Adam he gets Eve as well as dominion.

Such was Joseph now. And surely a greater than Joseph is here. Surely this is none other than Jesus the Son of God seated beside the Father on His throne in His full confidence and favour, and though cast out by Israel, receiving unquestioned title to all power, and made the Treasurer of all that grace and blessing upon which Israel and the nations are soon to draw for life and preservation in the earth. And all this because a right spirit was in Him as Pharaoh owned in Joseph. Jesus honoured not Himself. "Do not interpretations belong to God?" said Joseph. "My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me," said Jesus. Jesus was obedient, wherefore God has highly exalted Him. "Grace is poured into Thy lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee for ever."

And besides all this present glory on the throne, the Son of God has received a present joy, as we have seen Joseph did in Egypt. He has now received, from among Gentile strangers, a new unlooked for family. And Joseph's Egyptian family clearly typify Christ's heavenly family, or the church. For in the joy of His having received the church, the Lord has for a while forgotten Israel, as Joseph called his first-born "Manasseh," for "God," said he, "hath made me forget all my toil and all my father's house;" and his second son, he calleth "Ephraim," for "God," said he, "hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction."

All this a child might trace; but the Holy Ghost, Who graciously reveals "to babes and sucklings," has Himself led us in this interpretation. In the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the rapture of the Son of man into heaven is given exactly the same place as the glory of Joseph in Egypt. The whole bearing of St. Stephen's words leads to this. He is drawing out the proofs, that Israel had been always resisting the Holy Ghost; that as their fathers had done, so had that present generation been then doing; and thus that their treatment of Joseph and Moses (whose history as well as Joseph's he recites) were thus types of their treatment of the Just One. Joseph, it is true, was at last made known to his brethren, as we shall see presently, and at the last also Moses delivered his people. But during a long interval, both were separated from them. And so with Christ. In the end He will be made known to Israel, as their Redeemer and Brother, but for the present He is separated from them. And His separation is unto heaven, as Joseph's had been unto Egypt, and Moses' unto Midian. And wives and children given to Joseph and Moses, in the place and during the season of this separation, is thus necessarily the type of the gathering of the church to Jesus now.

But Joseph and Moses not only get a special glory and a peculiar joy in the separated place, but they are there also under preparation for becoming the future benefactors and redeemers of their unbelieving brethren. Joseph, as I have been noticing, is made the treasurer of those supplies on which Israel was soon to draw; and Moses gets the rod of strength by which he was soon to make a passage for Israel forth from the land of their bondage. But, till the appointed hour, Israel was in an evil case, filling up their sins, and knowing the service of the nations; as now they are a scattered and outcast people, and their sanctuary a disclaimed dishonoured ruin, while He, Whom they have rejected, is in heaven. So perfect are the patterns of old, of the secrets which are now revealed unto us by the Spirit.

Genesis 42 - 44

— These chapters give us the fourth section of the history.

In the preceding sections, we have seen, first, Joseph cast out by his brethren; secondly, his brethren filling up the measure of their sin; thirdly, Joseph brought to glory and joy in the midst of those strangers among whom his brethren's enmity had cast him. And all these we have seen setting forth Jesus, Israel, and the church.

But Israel is not always to lie in their blood or be forgotten. Their sins and iniquities are soon to be remembered no more, as soon indeed as sore affliction brings them to Jesus and to repentance, so here stress of famine in the land of Canaan leads his brethren to seek that help which was now laid for them on Joseph alone.

Joseph, however, had something more to do for them than simply to supply their present need. He must prepare not only a blessing for them, but them for a blessing. And though the method which he had to take may be strange in their sight for a while, yet love and wisdom were to direct it all from beginning to end. In order to bless them with real blessing, as he purposed, he must lead them to repentance; and he orders his behaviour before them now according to this purpose. He had once come to them, and they had said, "behold, this dreamer cometh;" they now come to him, and he says, "ye are spies, ye are spies." He makes himself strange, and speaks roughly to them, and by this he calls their sin to remembrance. "We are verily guilty," say they, "concerning our brother." But he hides himself while all this is going on. He speaks to them by an interpreter. It was indeed his work, but it was his strange work; he was doing his act, but it was his strange act. He orders circumstances so as to let sorrow work repentance, but he does not set show himself. For all this may be the way of his hand, but it was not the way of his heart. In secret, though unknown to them, he enters into the very sorrows that he was occasioning. In their affliction, like One that is better than he, he was afflicted. He would not have put on this rough mood, could he have helped it. But by this their iniquity was to be purged, and this was all the fruit to take away their sin. His love therefore must be firm and wise, as well as tender. They had once bound and sold their poor brother to strangers, and now a stranger takes and binds one of them. All this was fixing the arrow of conviction in their hearts, there to spend its venom, and lay the sentence of death deeply in them. He dismisses the rest with present supplies for their houses, charging them not to see his face again, except their youngest brother was with them. For he must know whether they had as yet the affections of children and of brothers, or whether they were still, as once, when he had known them, reckless, of a brother's cries and a father's bereavement.

Ere they departed, however, he commands his steward to restore every man's money to his sack. But this was only to carry on the same work of repentance in their now awakened hearts. And so it does; for on opening their sacks, and discovering their money, "their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, what is this that God hath done to us." The money in their sacks will not let them forget that, though they may now have turned their backs on that stranger in Egypt who spake so roughly to them, and called their sin to remembrance, yet God's eye was still upon them, and God had still to do with them.

Thus the work goes on in their souls. They had been convicted, and godly sorrow was then working fear in them. And very soon much more than sorrow and fear is seen in them, for being returned home, and letting their father know that Benjamin's presence with them was the only condition on which they dared to hope for a fresh supply from Egypt, Reuben and Judah at once stand forth in the spirit of self-sacrifice. "Slay my two sons," says Reuben, "if I bring him not onto thee." "I will be surety for him," says Judah: "of my hand shalt thou require him."

All this blessedly shows how repentance was yielding its meet fruit in them, but to aggravate their grief, and thus still to carry on the work in their souls. Jacob seems now for the first time to come to a suspicion that they had been guilty concerning Joseph. He had before said, "An evil beast hath devoured him," but now it is "me have ye bereaved of my children." He seems to say of them, "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." All this must have stirred the arrow afresh in their hearts, that it might still be doing there its needed work.

But Jacob at last consents to let Benjamin go — and after all this exercise of heart, and with Benjamin in their hand, more prevailing than all the honey and balm and spices which they carried, they return to Joseph. On seeing Benjamin, Joseph is moved to new affections, and fresh kindness, and he gives his house commandment that all these men should dine with him at noon. But, kindness or roughness works alike with an evil conscience. To the defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure. A shaken leaf might well frighten the brethren now, for conscience had made cowards of them all. "They were afraid because they were brought into Joseph's house." And other thoughts await them there. They are seated before Joseph, "the first-born according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth," and they marvelled one at another, while they ate and were merry. So wisely was Joseph calling in every passion of the mind, and weaving them together, wonder with fear, and gratitude with joy, that there might be a thorough renewal unto repentance.

Thus does the work go on, and prosperously too, but it has some way to travel, ere it reach the perfection that Joseph had purposed. He lays a further plan for fully testing whether indeed a child's heart and a brother's heart were in them. Joseph's cup is put into Benjamin's sack, and they are again dismissed with fresh supplies. But now was the crisis. Benjamin, the cup being found on him, becomes forfeited to Joseph. This was the solemn moment in the whole proceeding; and the question is, how will the once murderous brethren, and the once thankless children, now carry themselves? Are they still what once they were, or has the heart of flesh been given them? Will the sorrows of Benjamin move them, with whom the cries of Joseph could not prevail? or will the thought of the grief of their aged father at home, plead with their hearts as once it refused to plead? These were the questions, and they get their triumphant answer. Judah stands before Joseph in the shame of confessed iniquity. They were all innocent touching the cup; but they were not so touching their brother, and this their sin only is before them now. "What shall we say? what shall we speak?" says he, "how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants." Joseph for a moment feigns as though their former iniquity, thus confessed, were nothing to him. Benjamin. is his, and he must remain with him. Then Judah draws near, and again pleads as with the bowels of a son and a brother for Jacob and for Benjamin. "The lad" and "my father," are the oft-repeated burthen of Judah's sorrows now. He is ready to abide a bondman himself, only let "the lad" go back to "his father"; let the father's heart be comforted, and the brother's innocency preserve him, and Judah will be satisfied, come to himself what may.

Thus did Judah plead, proving himself indeed one "whom his brethren might praise." And now nothing more is asked for! Joseph had not been willingly afflicting his brethren. All his way was only to lead them to this place of repentance. He meets them now not as a judge, but as a brother. . . His love could no longer hide itself. "Cause every man to go out from me," said he, and then he made himself known to his brethren. He showed to them his thoughts how kind they were. He set free their evil conscience, and bound up their broken hearts. The channels were now cleared, and grace and blessing flow through in living, refreshing, and gladdening streams.

So it will be with Israel and the Lord. The Lord has now retired to His place, the place to which Israel's enmity had sent Him, but made to Him of God the place of honour and of family delights, as Egypt was to Joseph. But in their affliction by-and-by, they will seek Him in that distant place (Hosea 5: 15), and He will then be found of them, and, in richer wisdom and love than even that of Joseph, lead them to repentance, sit over them as a refiner and purifier of silver, give them a broken and contrite heart, cause them to look on Him whom they pierced, and then open to them a fountain for all their sorrows. For though He has spoken against them, He remembers them still, and in all their afflictions has been afflicted, and will then rejoice over them. Joseph no longer spoke to them by an interpreter, no longer hid himself as with a veil from his repentant brethren. "Your eyes see," said he, "that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you." And so shall Israel's eyes see the King in His beauty, and the veil shall be taken away, and with a surer and readier love, than that with which Joseph fell on his brethren's neck, and kissed them, will Jehovah Jesus return to them (Lev. 26: 40-42). "I will say it is My people, and they shall say, the Lord is my God."

Genesis 45 - 47

— These chapters give us the fifth and closing section of our history.

The reconciliation, which waited only for the repentance, being now perfected, all was ready for the loading of the brethren with unstinted blessing: and Pharaoh's good-will is to be fully toward them, as well as Joseph's. They were Joseph's brethren; that was enough for Pharaoh; and Pharaoh will have their aged father brought down, and, with his households and his flock, seated in the fattest and choicest portion of the land.

All this was marvellous in Jacob's ears when he heard it. He "believed not for joy and wondered;" for this to him was receiving Joseph alive from the dead. But Jacob seems to tremble a little at the thought of Egypt. There Abram had sinned, and there Isaac had been warned not to go. Jacob might say, "Joseph is still alive, I will go and see him before I die;" but he seems to enter on his journey with some godly fear, for it was bearing him toward this Egypt. Accordingly, when he reaches Beersheba, he pauses in his way, and offers sacrifice to the God of his father. But the hand of the God of his father is now to appear to Jacob for his full confidence. He comes to him in a vision of the night, and adds His encouragement to that of Joseph's invitation and Pharaoh's desire. He enters into a covenant of promise with him, as He had done with Abram (15), giving him to know that Egypt was to be the place where Israel was to be made a great nation; and thus encouraged and commanded of the Lord God of his fathers, Jacob is fully ready, and accordingly goes down into the land of Egypt, and finds Joseph there of a truth and the place itself, the scene of Joseph's greatness and wealth — being thus given to prove that whereas he had thought all things were against him, all things had rather been working together for him; and in spirit he says, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace . . . . for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation."

But Joseph was not only, as we have seen, to be made known to his brethren, but Joseph's kindred are also now to be made known to Pharaoh (Acts 7: 13). Accordingly he presents them to the king. They were shepherds, it is true, keepers of cattle from their youth, such as were held in abomination in the land of Egypt. But what of that? "He is not ashamed to call them brethren." He owns them in the presence of the king, and the king himself is of one mind with Joseph toward them; he owns them also, and honours them, and will have them regard the whole of his land as before them. And they are accordingly placed in the best of the land, in Goshen in the land of Rameses, and Joseph nourishes them and their households.

All this is great, and all significant. But this is not all. Joseph is to be the upholder of the whole earth in life and in order, and to secure the full honour of Pharaoh's throne, as well as to be thus the healer and restorer of Israel. He must seat the king in the dominion of the world with the willing homage of a preserved and happy people, who were to owe their lives to him. And this he does. He gives the Egyptians their lives out of his storehouses; but he gathers their money, their cattle, their lands, and themselves, all for Pharaoh. For himself he retains nothing but his place of honour and trust and service under the king. Everyone, it is true, was to confess that he was lord, their deliverer and preserver, but this was to be Pharaoh's glory. "Thou hast saved our lives," said they, "let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants." It was into Pharaoh's house that Joseph brought their money; it was for Pharaoh alone that he bought them and their land. He settled the whole country, it is true, according to his wisdom, removing the people into cities from one end of it to the other; but the land was still to yield her increase, her holy portion, her double tithe, unto Pharaoh and his throne. This was the law of "the Joseph earth," of that world that had now been brought back from famine and the curse.*

*All but the land of the priests was purchased and became a part of Pharaoh's footstool. And so in the coming kingdom: all shall be of the footstool, but the inheritance of that family who have been related to Joseph in his Egypt, to Jesus in heaven, and who are to be kings and priests unto God then, the heirs of the throne with Jesus, having their inheritance apart from the footstool.

There may be no speech or language here, but a voice is heard by the ear that is awakened. Joseph has now received his brethren, and enriched them with the richest of the land. He has also presented them without shame before the lord the king. He has preserved the whole earth, and secured the full glory of the throne of his master. And so will it be in the end of the days. The long-forgotten and then repentant brethren shall be seated in the true Goshen, the glory of all lands, and Jesus shall own them and present them as His brethren without shame, and the world shall then be established from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. God shall be merciful to Israel, and bless them, and the earth shall yield Him her increase, and the people, yea, all the people, shall praise him (Ps. 67). At is name every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth, and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

I do not notice the remaining chapters of this history, for in them Jacob becomes principal again, and the place which Joseph occupies in them is of another character. But these chapters give us properly Joseph; and constitute one complete mystery, beginning with the rejection and ending with the kingdom of Christ, taking up, by the way, His union with the church and His heavenly glory. J. G. B.

King Saul

King Saul.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 14, p. 84 etc.

1 Samuel 8 - 10.

There is not in Scripture a character that furnishes more solemn warning than that of King Saul. As we pass on from stage to stage through his history, it fills the soul with very awful thoughts of the treachery and corruption of the heart of man; and as we are sure that it has been written for our learning (Rom. 15: 4), we may well be thankful to our God for the counsel that it gives us, and seek His grace that we may read the holy lesson to profit.

But this we should know, that, though the Spirit of God may have thus graciously recorded these acts of the wicked for our learning, they were all executed by the hand and according to the heart of the man himself. God is to be known here, and in similar histories, only in that holy sovereignty which draws good out of evil, and in that care for His saints which records that evil for their admonition.

The first Book of Samuel has a very distinct character. It strikingly exhibits the removal of man and the bringing in of God. It accordingly opens with the barren woman receiving a child from the Lord; this being, in scripture, the constant symbol of grace, and the pledge of divine power acting on the incompetency of the creature. It then shows us the priesthood (which had been set in formal order and succession) corrupting itself and removed by judgment, and upon that God's Priest (who was to do according to his heart, and for whom he was to build a sure house) brought in. (1 Sam. 2: 35.) And then, in like manner, it shows us the kingdom (at first set according to man's desire) corrupting itself, and removed by judgment, and upon that God's King (who was also after His heart, and for whom He would also build a sure house) brought in. Thus, this Book exhibits everything, whether in the sanctuary or on the throne, while in man's hand coming to ruin, and the final committal of everything to the hand of God's anointed. And this anointed of God, we know, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, is to be none less than the Son of God Himself, God's King to hold the immoveable kingdom, and God's Priest to hold the untransferable priesthood.

The history of King Saul properly begins with the eighth chapter of this book. There we find the revolted heart of Israel, which had been departing from the Lord, as He there tells Samuel, ever since He had brought them out of Egypt, seeking still greater distance from Him, and desiring a king in the stead of Him. The ill government of Samuel's sons at this time was their pretence, but it was only a pretence. There is no doubt that they did act corruptly, and Samuel may have been at fault in making them judges, consulting perhaps too much with flesh and blood, and too little with Israel's welfare and the Lord's honour. But the Lord discloses the real source of this desire for a king, saying to Samuel, "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." Like Moses in such a case (Ex. 16: 7), Samuel was nothing that the people should murmur against him or his sons; their murmurings were not against him, but against the Lord.

"Israel would none of me," says the Lord, "so I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust, and they walked in their own counsels." (Ps. 81: 12.) They shall have what their soul was now lusting after, but they shall find it to be their plague. Their own king shall be their sorrow and ruin, as all our own things are, if we will follow them and have them. "He feedeth on ashes, a deceived heart turned him aside." What but ashes (sorrow and death) does the labour of our own hands gather for us? So is it always, try it in what way we may, and so was Israel now to find it in their own king. (1 Sam. 8: 11-17.)

But in wonted grace, the Lord here gives His people space to repent of this their evil choice before they reaped the bitter fruit of it. And this was just what He had done before at Mount Sinai. When they were there bent on accepting the fiery law, as though they could keep it and live by it, Moses is made to pass and repass between them and the Lord, in order, as it seems, to give them space to turn and still trust in that grace which had redeemed them from Egypt, and not cast themselves on the terms of Mount Sinai. (See Ex. 19.) And so here, I believe, with the same intent Samuel passes again and again between the Lord and the people, But as they there listened to their own heart in its confidence and self-sufficiency, so here they will have a king in spite of all God's gracious warning. They take their own way again.

And I ask, dear brethren, is not this His way, and alas! too often our way still? Is He not often checking us by His Spirit, that we go not in the way of our own heart, and yet are we not like Israel, too often heedless of His Spirit? And what do we ever find the end of our own way to be, but grief and confusion? For the Lord has only to leave us to ourselves, if He would fain leave us for destruction. Legion is the fearful witness of this. (Mark 5.) He presents man in his proper native condition, choosing the captivity of Satan, and, as such, being one whom nothing could relieve but that sovereign grace which does not stop to take counsel with man's own desire (for then it would never act), but which goes right onward with its own purpose to rescue and to bless.

But such was Israel now, knowing only their own will in this matter of the king. And this at once prepares us for the manner of person that we are to find in their forthcoming king. For the wilful people must have a wilful king. Of none other could it be said that all the desire of Israel was on him. Of none other could Samuel have said, "Behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired." None other could have been the king of this people.

But all this forebodes fearful things in the king, and fearful days for Israel. And so shall we find it. In the divine order such a time as the reign of King Saul has its appointed uses. Showing us the kingdom in man's hand, it serves to set off the kingdom in God's hand — mischief and corruption and disaster marking the one, honour and blessing and rest the other. The kingdom brought in by their own desire would let them see how unequal they were to provide for their own happiness; just as "this present evil world," which our own lusts have formed and fashioned, is found unequal to satisfy, leaving us subject to vanity still. But with all this, God's workmanship will stand in blessed contrast. The kingdom under Saul in all its wretchedness and shame might set off the glorious and peaceful days of David and Solomon, as this world of ours will set off "the world to come" in the days of the Son of man.

But however the Lord may thus serve His own glory and His people's comfort by this, it is Israel that now bring this season of shame and sorrow on themselves. They sow the wind to reap the whirlwind. Saul comes forth, the chosen one of a wilful and revolted nation, to do his evil work. And thus he stands in one rank with another more wicked than himself. He stands as the type and brother of that king in the latter day who is to do "according to his will" — the one who is to come "in his own name," and say in his heart "no God." Saul was now coming forth the first of that line of shepherds or rulers who were "to feed themselves and not the flock," to eat the fat, and clothe them with the wool (Ezek. 34), and do all that evil work that is here prophesied of Israel's own king, and fill out that character that is here drawn of Saul.*

*Saul is expressly treated of as "the violent man" or last enemy of Israel in 2 Sam. 22 and Ps. 18. This last enemy, or the last of these kings of the people, will give place to the true David, who shall feed God's heritage with integrity of heart and skilfulness of hand, as this first of them is succeeded by David the son of Jesse, the man after God's own heart. This last of them is called "the foolish shepherd" in Zech. 11: 15.

Into the hand of such shepherds Israel is now cast, seeing they had rejected the Lord their good Shepherd, and desired one after their own heart. The first of them, as we here find, was of that tribe of which it had been said of old, "Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf, in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil." (Gen. 49: 27.) And he was of that city, in that tribe, which had already wrought such mischief in Israel, and been the occasion of nearly blotting out the memorial of one of the tribes from among the people of the Lord. (Judges 19 - 21.)

But we further learn of him, that though belonging to the least of all the families of his tribe, and that, too, the smallest tribe in Israel, his father Kish was "a mighty man of substance." And from this description, I gather that Saul and his father had prospered in this world, being men who were wise in their generation, people of that class who "will be rich," though nature and family and circumstances are all against them. And Saul is first shown to us searching for his father's asses. Some thing of the family property was missing, and it must be searched for — their own ass had fallen into the ditch and it must be taken out. But though thus careful of his own things, he seems, as yet at least, to have had no great care for the things of God, for he does not at this time know even the person of Samuel, who was now the great witness of God in the land; and soon after this, his neighbours, "who had known him aforetime," wonder with great wonder that he should be found among the prophets, so that to this day he is a proverb. All these are notices of what generation he was, telling us that though as yet in an humble sphere, he and his father's house had been formed rather by the low principles of the world, than by worthy thoughts of the Lord of Israel. And such an one was just fit to be directed to Samuel at the time when the worldly heart of the people was desiring a king. His mind was upon the asses, as Samuel seems to him. The world was set in his heart, though from circumstances it had not as yet been developed in many of its proper fruits. And this is awful warning, beloved. Circumstances, as here, may indeed be needed in order to prove the ground of the heart; but it is the heart itself that determines the man before God (1 Sam. 16: 7), and sooner or later will determine the life before men. (Proverbs 4: 23; Matt. 15: 19.)

In accordance with all this, on being introduced to the intended king, we have no mention whatever of any moral qualifications that he had. All that we learn of him is this, "that he was a choice young man, and a goodly, and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he; from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people." Thus and thus only is he spoken of. He is judged of simply after the flesh, looked at only in the outward man, and thus was suited to man who had desired him, for "man looketh on the outward appearance." Therefore when the people saw his stature and nothing more, they cry, "God save the king." This was the king after their heart. He was of the world, and the world loved its own.*

* Absalom, another of the same generation with Saul, is described only in this way also. "In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him." And surely both of them are types of the beast or the wilful king of the latter day. And will not he be decked out with the same beauty in the flesh? Will he not have his parts and comely proportions all to admiration? Will he not be perfect in all subtle attractions and forms of beauty as the serpent in the garden?

And here let me say, that if Saul be thus the man after man's heart, and David, as we read afterwards, the man after God's heart, we learn in the one what we are, and in the other what God is. And the distinctive characters of the two kings is this: Saul would have everything his own and be everything himself; David was willing to be nothing and to have nothing, but still in whatever state he was, to be the diligent unselfish servant of others. And thus man, to our shame, is presented in the narrow-heartedness of Saul, but God to our comfort in the generous self-devotement of David.

All this character of Saul will be awfully disclosed in all the passages of his future history, but the same principles are even now early at work. It may be that the less practised eye cannot discern this, and it is indeed well and happy to be "simple concerning evil." But heart will sometimes answer to heart, and make some of us, beloved, quicker to detect its treachery than others. Thus in Saul keeping back Samuel's words touching the kingdom, in hiding himself among the stuff when the lot had fallen upon him, and again in holding his peace when some would not give him their voices, there is in all this, I judge, only the show of virtue.* For the love of the world and of its praise can afford to be humble and generous at times. It can even send forth those or any other virtues, taking care, however, to send them forth in such a direction as to make them bring home, after a short journey, some rich revenues to the ruling lusts.

*Another indeed hid Himself when they would have come to make Him a king (John 6), but He was acting according to God's glory and will in that; Saul in this was resisting it, however his modesty, as it might be thought, may attract the judgment of the mere human mind for awhile.

In the hand of such an one is the kingdom of Israel now vested, but such an one was not "God's king." To give them a king, however, appears to have been God's purpose from the beginning. The prophetic words of both Jacob and Moses upon Judah, as also the words by Balaam (Num. 24: 17), intimate this; as also Moses' title, "king in Jeshurun." And more than these, the ordinance touching the king in Deuteronomy 17, and the fact that the Lord Jesus Himself sought the kingdom when He was here (Matt. 21: 1), and in the end, at His second coming will take it (Ps. 2: 6), prove that God's first purpose was to give Israel a king.

But things were not ready for the king all at once; various previous courses must be accomplished, ere that top stone in the divine building could be brought forth. Israel at first had to be redeemed from bondage — then to be carried through the wilderness to learn the ways and secrets of God's love — then to get their promised inheritance delivered out of the hand of the usurper. Till these things were done, all was not in readiness for the king. Had these things been simply accomplished, the king without delay would have appeared to crown the whole work with the full beauty of the Lord. But each stage in this way of the Lord Israel had sadly interrupted and delayed. After redemption from Egypt they had given themselves, through disobedience, forty years' travel in the wilderness; after taking the inheritance, they had again, through disobedience, brought pricks into their sides and thorns in their eyes; and now they forestall God's king, and through disobedience and wilfulness again bring their own king, as another plague upon them. But this is the way of man, beloved, the way of us all by nature. Through unbelief and wilfulness we refuse to wait God's time, and we procure a Saul for ourselves. It was thus that Sarah brought Ishmael into her house, and Jacob his twenty-one years of exile and servitude upon himself. Our own crooked policy and unbelief must answer for these sorrows. God, if waited for, would bring the blessing that maketh rich and which addeth no sorrow with it; but our own way only teaches us that he that soweth to the flesh must of the flesh reap corruption. To this day Israel is learning this, and reaping the fruit of the tree they planted, learning the service of the nations whom, like Saul, they have set over themselves; and their only joy lies in this, that God's counsel of grace, in spite of all, is to stand, and His own king shall still sit on His holy hill of Zion.

But in spite of all this, and though Israel is now transferred into other hands, God will prove that nothing should be wanting on His part. He had not only signified Saul to Samuel, and Samuel had then signified Saul at the sacrificial feast, and anointed and kissed him, (1 Sam. 9, 10), but in the mouth of several witnesses the divine purpose had been established, and the Spirit, as faculty for office, had been imparted, and an "occasion," as Samuel speaks (1 Sam. 10: 7) for proving that God was thus with the king, now arrives.

1 Samuel 11 - 15.

The insult of Nahash the Ammonite towards Jabesh-Gilead was this "occasion," and the Lord gives Israel a complete victory over him by the hand of their king. For this battle was the Lord's, inasmuch as the Lord would fulfil His part in this matter. We need not inquire where Israel got their instruments of war, if now there was "no smith found throughout all the land," for this day was won not by might nor by power, but "by My Spirit, saith the Lord." This victory might therefore have been gained as well with lamps and pitchers, or with the jawbones of asses, or with slings and stones from the brook, as with the battle-axe and bow.

Thus again, as in ancient days, the Lord approves Himself not wanting, however wilful and stiff-necked His people may be found. And after this, the king is accepted again of the people (1 Sam. 12); and this chapter reminds us of Exodus 20 as the eighth chapter reminded us of Exodus 19. For in Exodus 20 Moses transfers them into their new position, but convicts them of the terribleness of it; and here Samuel formally plants them under their king, but convicts them again as with the thunder and tempest of Mount Sinai. The thunder and rain came upon them here, as the fearful pledge and prelude of the end of their own kingdom, as the shaking of the earth at Sinai pledged the end of their own covenant. And under it they cry out in terror here, as they had done there. There they had said to Moses, "Speak thou with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die," — and here they say to Samuel, "Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not, for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king." And in mercy Samuel here, as Moses there, encourages them still to hold fast by the Lord, who, in spite of all, was still graciously owning them as His people.*

*This thunder in harvest is noticed here as something remarkable; and so it was. Jehovah was the husbandman of the land of Israel (Deut 11), and had Israel been in simple allegiance to Him, everything would have witnessed the care and skill of the divine husbandman, and the blessing of that people that had the Lord for their God. There would have been nothing out of season: the early and the latter rain would have fallen only in their appointed months. Thunder in harvest would not have been known, or known only in judgment, as it is here.

These two occasions are thus in strict moral analogy, and show us that king Saul was introduced into the Jewish system now, as the law had been at Mount Sinai, through the wilfulness and unbelief of the people, Saul being no more God's king than the law was God's covenant. Israel has again lost their peace by all this, and cast themselves into sorrows and difficulties that they little counted on; but the Lord pardons and accepts them, as He had done at Sinai, and now sets them in the way again in their new character.

And now comes the trial again. "Fear not," says Samuel to them, "ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart." But, ere the first scene in the kingdom closes, all is broken and forfeited, just an the covenant from Sinai was broken ere Aaron and the people had left the foot of the Mount. There the people grew impatient at the delay of Moses, and, in violation of the very first article of the covenant, made a golden calf. So here Samuel had left Saul for awhile, telling him to go down to Gilgal, and wait for him there till he should come and offer the sacrifices, but now Saul offers the sacrifices himself. (1 Sam. 13.) He forsakes the word of the Lord. The first act of the king was thus again a violation of the first command he had received. And thus was it all again, as at Sinai so at Gilgal, the immediate breach of the covenant on the part of man. The Lord, it is true, had grace in store for Israel while they were thus destroying themselves; as at Sinai He showed the witnesses of mercy on the top of the Mount, while Israel was sinning away all their present blessing at the foot of it. But still, in the king's hand now, as in the people's then, all was disaster and loss.

Speedy and yet fully ripe fruit was this of their own way. But, beside this one great act of forfeiture, there are traits of character now displaying themselves in the people's king that strongly mark his generation. We see him acting now after the manner forewarned of Samuel. He chooses three thousand men of Israel to wait upon him, sending the rest to their tents, thus dealing with them as his property, having right to do what he would with his own. "When Saul saw any strong man, or any valiant man, he took him unto him" — taking thus their sons and appointing them unto himself, as Samuel had said. And all his ways are in the same tone of self-will, fully opposed to the manner of God's king as prescribed by Moses. (Deut. 17.) In the sovereignty of his own good pleasure, the people's king now does his own will, exalting himself above his brethren, blowing the trumpet throughout the land, speaking, as with the voice of a god and not of a man, and saying, "let the Hebrews hear;" thus bringing, as it were, the people to his own door-posts, and there boring their ears, that they might be his servants for ever.

And he would be priest as well as king. He would fain sit in the sanctuary as well as on the throne; in disobedience, he will himself offer the sacrifice; in all these things giving us awful pledges of the ways of him who is still to be more daring, magnifying himself above all, planting his tabernacles on the glorious holy mountain, and sitting in the temple of God.*

*To mark the wilful infidel character of Saul still further, I may observe that the ark of God was not once consulted all through his reign. (1 Chr. 10: 13, 14.)

Such was Saul, and such will be his elder brother or antitype in the latter day. But as, in spite of all the trespass and breach of covenant at Mount Sinai, the Lord did not allow the enemy to triumph over Israel, but brought them into the good land that He had promised them; so here, in spite of all this, He works deliverance for them from the Philistines as He had promised, and that, too, in a way that more marvellously displays His hand than the day of Gideon or of Samson. (1 Sam. 14.) This victory at Michmash, like the victories of Joshua, verified the faithfulness of the God of Israel. Not one good thing could fail. He had promised strength against the Philistines now, as He had promised the land of the Canaanites then, and this day of Michmash and that which follows fulfils the word of the Lord. (1 Sam. 9: 16, 1 Sam. 14: 47, 48.)

But all this, as everything else, serves only to develop the people's king more and more. The ways of a wilful one are strongly marked in all that he does. His course is uncertain and wayward, because it is just what his own will makes it. But in the midst of all the present gathering darkness there is one object of relief to the eye — the person and actions of Jonathan. He is the one in the apostate kingdom who owns God and is owned of Him, the remnant in the midst of the thousands of Israel, the one who stood in the secret of God, and knew where the strength of Israel lay. And thus he is in full readiness for all the openings of the divine purpose. We see him in immediate sympathy with David, as soon as David appears. (1 Sam. 18: 1.) His deeds in Israel, before David is heard of, savour of the very spirit that animates David afterwards; for the victory of Michmash which his hand won was in full character with that in the valley of Elah, which David afterwards achieved. God was trusted in both of them, as the only giver of victory. The spirit with which Jonathan entered the passages between Bozez and Seneh carried David into the front of the battle against the giant. And this, I may say, is the character of every remnant — they walk in the spirit of the hope set before them, so that when it is manifested they are ready for it. As here Jonathan was ready for David, Anna and Simeon waited for "the consolation of Israel," and embraced the Child the moment they saw Him. In the latter day, in like manner, the remnant will be looking for the Lord as an afflicted and poor people; and so, in the meanwhile, we should watch for the heavenly glory in the spirit of holy retirement from the world and the things of the world. In spirit and conversation we should be as "children of light and children of the day," thus signalising our remnant character, though the night is still around us; so that when the light of the morning breaks, and the day of the kingdom comes, we may find our native place in it. The oil in the vessels of the wise virgins tells us this. It tells us that they had counted the cost of being wakeful to the end — that they knew themselves only as "prisoners of hope" in this world, and that it was still but night-time, which would need the lamp, till grace should be brought to them at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

And the character of the apostate is marked in the very opposite way. It is this remnant that they hate, and their hope that they are not preparing for. It is this righteous Jonathan who now moves Saul's envy. Saul, it appears, would now have sacrificed him to his lust, as we know he afterwards sought to slay him. For envy, or the love of the world, cares not though it have even a child of our own bowels for its prey, as we know, in the case of Joseph, it craved a brother for a sacrifice. In Saul it also hunted David like a partridge in the mountains, and even would have killed Samuel, to whom under God Saul owed everything. (1 Sam. 16: 2.) As says the divine proverb, "wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy?"

And with all this, he had no courage in the Lord's cause when the trial came. He makes a stir and bustles a good deal with his six hundred men behind him at Gilgal; but as we follow him to Gibeah, where the battle was at hand, he tarries in the uttermost part under a pomegranate tree, nor do we see him in the field till the day is won. He rages after the fight, but strikes no blow in it; and all that he does is to sacrifice the honour of Israel to his own will, for in the mere exercise of his own good pleasure, he adjures the people not to touch any food till the evening, and that curse hinders the full overthrow of the Philistines.

Thus all that he really is, on this memorable day, is the Achan in the camp. Jonathan is the strength, and he but the troubler of Israel. But with all this, he can be very religious, when religion does not turn him out of his own way, or when, like Jehu, he can serve himself by it. After the offence of the people eating the blood with the flesh, he orders the table of the camp himself in due religious form. But this, instead of crossing his own desire, only serves it, for by this he seems to take the honour of the priesthood to him, and thus to exalt himself. He bustles again as though he were the one object of importance in the whole scene, thus gathering the thoughts of man to himself, and walking in the full light of the world's countenance, which was everything to him, the thing that he lived for.

All this is indeed darkness, but we have gloomier shades to penetrate still.

When Israel entered the land, they received a commission to destroy the nations, for the day of their visitation had come. But here I would observe that it was not the whole earth that was thus to be destroyed, but only those nations which had been guilty of doing despite to God, and had filled up the measure of their sins. The Canaanites had had God's witnesses among them in old time, for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been there, but they remained Canaanites still. The Egyptians had known Joseph and the grace and power of the God of Joseph, but they had ceased to remember Him. And Amalek had seen the God of glory leading His hosts out of Egypt, with His cloud over them, and the water from the rock following them, but the hand of Amalek was at that moment raised against the throne of God. Of these three, Egypt, the Canaanites, and Amalek, Egypt and the Canaanites had been already judged, and the day of Amalek had now come; for surely when the Lord's cup was passing, they could not be forgotten.*

*And I would further observe, that in the same way will be the judgment of the nations in the latter day. It is not all the earth that is then to be destroyed, but only those nations among whom God's witnesses have previously been, those who will then make up the confederacy against the Lord's anointed. The kingdoms of the world shall then become the Lord's, and not be destroyed; the isles afar off shall form the train of the earthly glory of Messiah, as the distant cities and people of old were to be left in order to become tributaries to Israel (Deut. 20: 10-18), and those only to be cut off, as I have noticed above, who had filled up the measure of their sin, and done despite to God. (Gen. 15: 16.)

But Israel had not been fully faithful to the commission which they had received against the Canaanites, as the 1st chapter of the Book of Judges shows us; and now our 15th chapter is just that chapter again under the hand of king Saul. The kingdom was now received, as the land had then been, and the king gets his commission now, as the nation then did. "Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that he hath," says the Lord to Saul by Samuel. But Saul makes terms with Amalek, as the tribes before had done with the Canaanites. He spares Agag, as Benjamin had spared the Jebusites, Manasseh the people of Dor, Ephraim the people of Gezer, Zebulun the people of Kitron, Asher the people of Accho, and Naphthali the people of Bethshemesh. (Judges 1.) And thus we have here with the king, as there with the tribes, the disobedience of man, and the consequent forfeiture of all blessing and honour. "Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord," says Samuel to Saul, "He hath also rejected thee from being king." (1 Sam. 15: 23.)

And this was as the loss of Eden to the Lord. The land of Israel should have been the earthly rest, where God would have kept His sabbath. But now it was defiled, as paradise of old; and as of old God repented that He had made man on the earth (Gen. 6: 6), so now does He repent that He had made Saul king over Israel. (1 Sam. 15: 35.) Thorns and briers and sorrow of heart the kingdom was now to yield, as the cursed earth did then. Samuel goes away to weep, and the Lord takes no pleasure in the kingdom.

Thus all is ruin under the hand of the people's king, and the lust of his heart is seen again to work in this scene with fearful power. For he seeks at once to turn this conquest of Amalek to his own profit and glory, careless as he was of the word and glory of the Lord. He first flies upon the spoil, and then sets him up a place (1 Sam. 15: 12), that is, erects some monument to his own name, thus seeking to make this victory serve both his pride and his covetousness.* It is true, he says, "I have sinned;" but so said Balaam before him, and Judas after him. And even in that confession, the desire of his heart was not towards God's forgiveness and peace, but towards his own honour before men. For these are his words to Samuel, "I have sinned; yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel." This was his lust — he loved the praise of men. He would at all cost have the honour that cometh from man, and Samuel now delivers him over to a reprobate mind. He turns for a moment with him towards the people, but then leaves him for ever.

*We read also of "Absalom's place." (2 Sam. 18.) But Saul and Absalom, as I have already noticed, were children of the same generation, both types of the Great Pretender of the latter day.

1 Samuel 16, 17.

Thus the judgment of God lies upon him, and an evil spirit from the Lord comes to trouble him. (1 Sam. 16.) And now the time has arrived for revealing again "the secret of God." For in all the seasons of man's destruction of himself, there has been another thing going on in the plans of the blessed God. Thus of old, the promised seed is sown in man's field of briers and thorns. (Gen. 3.) While his brethren are filling up their sins and sorrows in Canaan, Joseph, unknown to them, is growing up in Egypt for their help: while Israel is in the heat of the furnace, Moses is preparing to be their deliverer in the distant solitudes of Midian. And again, while disasters follow sins in quick succession, the Judges are brought forth as God's deliverers for the people; and at last, when the priesthood was defiled, and the glory gone into the enemy's land, Samuel the child is brought forth to raise the stone of help.

Thus had it been before, and so is it now again. Saul and the kingdom are bringing ruin on themselves, but David, "the secret of God," is under preparation to set the throne in honour, and the kingdom in order and strength. And what are all these things but notices to us of Him who is the true secret of God. For as such, the blessed Son of God is now, though flesh and blood decay, the hidden seed in the believer, that is to burst forth in the resurrection a plant of glory. And as such He will by-and-by bear up the pillars of the earth, when all things else are dissolving. He will then come forth out of His secret chambers, as Joseph or as Moses, as Samuel or as David, and shall be as the light of the morning, after a dark and dreary night, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds.*

*Moses preaches Christ as "the secret of God" in Deut. 29: 29. In connection with that, in the next chapter (Deut. 30: 11-14), he speaks of a certain "commandment," which he there describes; and Paul in his ministry refers to those words of Moses as descriptive of "the righteousness which is of faith," or, the word of Christ. (Rom. 10: 6.) And thus the Apostle fully discloses what the Lawgiver had only darkly intimated, and shows that Jesus is the secret that belongs to God — God's true resource for sinners. And I may further observe, that one of the names of Christ is "Secret." (Judges 13: 18; Isa. 9: 6.)

And this is always the way of grace: it comes into exercise after man has been convicted of entire insufficiency. It speaks on this wise: "Except the Lord had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." Man makes Jerusalem a Sodom, a filthy ruin, and then out of that ruin, God in His own grace and strength builds again "a city of righteousness." (Isa. 1.) And this grace ever takes for its instrument the weak thing and the foolish thing of this world. Such was Jesus of Nazareth, such was Paul with a thorn in his flesh, and such is David now. "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the heart." Man had already, as we have seen, looked on the outward appearance, and found his object in Saul, who in person was the goodliest of the children of Israel. But God's choice was not to be ordered by such a measure. (Ps. 147: 10.) A rod out of the stem of Jesse is His object, a root out of a dry ground in which there was no comeliness before the eye of men, the one of whom his father, "according to the flesh," says in scorn, "there remaineth yet the youngest, and he keepeth the sheep" — the one, who like a greater than he, man was thus despising and the nation abhorring. (Isa. 49: 7.) This one, this youngest son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, the keeper of a few sheep in the wilderness, is now God's object. "Arise, anoint him," says the Lord to Samuel, "for this is he."

And here again I must notice something that seems to me to have great moral value in it. I allude to what appears to have been the different condition of Saul's house and David's house, when they are severally brought before us. Saul's house, as we have seen, was of no repute in Israel, but had made a fortune as people speak. David's, on the other hand, had once been in honour, was of the tribe of Judah, and in its genealogy bore the distinguished name of Boaz, who had been, perhaps, the first man in his generation. But now it seems to be otherwise with them, for David and his father and his father's house have no distinction now, but simply take their place among the many thousands of Israel. But what of all this? the world finds its object in Saul ("for man will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself"), and God, in David. And these things teach us, beloved, that it is safer to be "going down," than "getting up," as the word is, in the world. And they tell us also that whom God will exalt, He first abases; whom He will glorify, He first humbles. He puts the sentence of death in the children of resurrection. But with the wicked there are no bands, their strength is firm.* (Ps.73.) Saul went through no sorrow up to the throne, as David did. Esau, the man of the earth, had dukedoms in his family, while Jacob's children were still homeless strangers on the earth (Gen. 36), yet it is written, "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated."

* Ps. 73 is the trial of the soul in learning that death and resurrection is God's principle.

God's way is according to this, hard indeed for flesh and blood to learn, and God's hand thus found its object in David, and we now have accordingly a new feature in the scene before us. We have David, God's chosen, as well as Saul within, and the Philistine without. David is before us in the strength of the Spirit of God, and he soon gives proofs of his ministry both upon the rejected king and upon the uncircumcised. Both are made to own the power of the Lord that was in him. Whether it were the harp or the sling, his hand is skilled to use either. The king had an evil spirit in him, and the uncircumcised is breathing out slaughter, but David stands above both in the strength of the Lord. The unclean spirit goes out from the king at the bidding of his harp, and the Philistine giant falls under his sling. (1 Sam. 16, 17.) It might be thought that king Saul's evil course was interrupted by this, but it soon appears that this was rather only another stage in his downward way. The sow was to return to her mire. The unclean spirit goes out only to gather and bring in seven other spirits more wicked than himself. This quieting of the evil spirit was but a flattering of God with the mouth, for the king's heart was not thereby set right with Him. He was not estranged from his lusts by it. His love of the world and its praise, his self-will, and hatred of the righteous, rule him still, and God and His word and His glory are as little regarded as ever.

1 Samuel 8 - 10.

And in all this we see Israel; for (like prince, like people) Saul is the representative of Israel in apostacy, as he is the forerunner or type of their king in the latter-day. This way of Saul under David's harp has been the way of Israel under God's ministers. Elijah raised among them for a moment the cry, "the Lord He is God, the Lord He is God," but all was quickly "Baal" again. In the light of John the Baptist they afterwards rejoiced, but it was only for a season; and when the hand of the Son of God Himself was among them to heal them and bless them, for awhile they flocked to Him in thousands, and when He preached they wondered (Luke 4), and when He entered their city they cried "Hosanna" (Matt. 21), but all soon ended in the cross. The evil spirit had been charmed, the unclean spirit had gone out, but the house was still ready for it, and for it only. And thus the harp of David and the grace and ministry of the Son of God were only the same stage in the downward paths of the king and the people. They were, both of them, disobedient and gainsaying still. And it was this case of David's harp, as I judge, which our Lord had especially in mind, when He said, "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out?" — thus likening to Saul that generation of Israel to whom He was preaching, and making the power of David's harp the same as the power of that preaching. And the parable of the unclean spirit going out and returning with others more wicked than himself, which the Lord then delivers (Luke 11), is thus a setting forth both of the history of Saul and of that generation. And so we shall find, that the spirit which now went out of Saul came into him again with increased strength, as the casting out of devils and cleansing the house of Israel for a time by the Son of God ended only in His becoming the victim of their lusts and enmity. For Saul was the man after Israel's heart, the full representative of the revolted and unbelieving nation.

But Saul's sin is not to hinder God's mercy. David has a work to do with the Philistine, which must be done, be the king never so unworthy. And in this we still see the way of the Son of God. He came to destroy the power of the enemy, as well as to heal the daughter of Zion; and though she, like Saul, may refuse to be healed, the Son of God must do His work upon the great Goliath. He must lead captivity captive. He must make an end of sin. He must break down the middle wall of partition and nail the handwriting to His cross. He must slay the enmity and abolish death. He must accomplish all this glorious triumph over the full power of the enemy, though He find none in Israel, who were His own, to receive Him, nor any in the world, that He had made, to know Him.

This again is shame and comfort to us: shame, that we could thus treat His love; comfort that His love survived such treatment. And upon this, I would further notice (for it carries another lesson to ourselves), that though Saul knew the power of David's harp for a time, he never knew David himself. He had not learnt David, if I may so speak — David was still a stranger to him (1 Sam. 17: 56). And how does this tell us of man and of Israel still!* Man will enjoy the rain from heaven, and the fruitful season; but remain ignorant of the Father who orders all this for him. Israel was healed of Jesus, but did not learn Jesus; many pressed on Him in the throng, who never touched Him. And all this is like Saul who could be refreshed by David's music, but still have to ask, "Abner, whose son is this youth?"

*The transposition of the latter part of 1 Sam. 17 to 1 Sam. 16 in order to meet the objection which has been made to the fact of Saul not knowing David in chap. 17, when he had been so much with him in the preceding one, is, I judge, quite uncalled for; and it does strike me that such efforts as that arise from the book of God being handled more with a critical than with a moral mind. We want the temper of "little children," for "the wise" are taken in their own craftiness.

And this, beloved brethren, is truly sad and solemn; and I think I can say that I never felt more awed, while meditating on scripture, with thoughts of what man is, than in this meditation on poor wretched miserable Saul. The subject is indeed very solemn. It gives us the way of man, the way of a child of this world, who goes on in self-will, with desperate purpose of heart, to take the world for his portion at all cost. And it is no theory, nor singular thing. It finds its counterpart in our world every day; and would in ourselves, but for the gracious keeping of our God. And I do pray, beloved, that neither my pen nor your eye may travel on through these dreary paths of man, without our heart feeling what a thing it is thus to live and thus to die a lover of this present evil world. "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." (Prov. 29: 1.)

Through the next chapters (1 Sam. 18 - 27.) David becomes the principal object; and all that we see in Saul is only the course of a vexed and disappointed man of the world, who by the goading of his own lusts rushes on to destruction, as a horse to the battle. He feels that he is losing the world, and that is every thing to him. He cared nothing for the kingdom, for its own sake; and he valued its welfare, only so far as that served the world in his heart and his honour among men. The evil spirit now returns with others more wicked than himself. Before, it was a spirit that troubled him, but now it irritates his lusts, and is too strong for the harp of David. (1 Sam. 16: 14, 1 Sam. 18: 10.) He had now become one of that generation who will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. (Ps. 58.) The song of the women had, the rather, awakened all the evil passions of his soul; and envy and wounded pride and hatred of the righteous work, and express themselves fearfully through all these scenes. That fatal song was to Saul what Joseph's dream had been to his brethren, and what the tidings of the wise men was afterwards to Herod — it stirred up all his enmity; and David's first successes are, of course, only fresh irritations of his lust (1 Sam. 19: 8, 9); and nothing roots it out. Convictions, disappointments, resolutions all fail. And the ruling passion is strong even in death; for while he confesses that David shall soon have every thing, and he himself be laid in the grave, still he says, "Swear now, therefore, unto me by the Lord, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house." Truly this is all a solemn warning to us. Saul's eye was set on fire of hell, and he kept it fixed on the righteous as its prey. "Saul eyed David." And it is not in the power of the prospect, or the approach of death, to heal "the evil eye." The spirit of envy and of strife will work in us, even to the very last gasp; and the only divine cure for it is, to learn through the Holy Ghost, with enlarged hearts, to cease looking to our own personal honour or interest, and to take our place in God's interests; to know that we have our honour, our enduring honour, only in that mighty and glorious system to which the ten thousands of others, and our own thousands are all contributing. That will give divine victory over the world. But the world was Saul's end, and he must get it at all cost. He knew nothing beyond "his own," and had never learnt the glorious and enlarging lesson, that all things are our's, if we are Christ's, for Christ is God's.

But Saul would have David fall by the hand of another, rather than by his own, for he had some stings of conscience in the business as it was; and beside that, he saw that David was "accepted in the sight of all the people." He plots against his life first by the Philistines, then by his daughter, and at last solicits even Jonathan to be the executioner. But these failing, and only forcing David out from the court and the camp, he then proclaims him a traitor; and would have his people treat him as an outlaw. But no weapon formed against him can prosper. Every snare of the fowler is broken, no craft can surprise, no strength can overthrow him. When the officers of the Jews came to take Jesus, they had to return, saying, — No man ever spake like this man;" and Saul himself and his officers are turned into prophets, that every hand that would bind this anointed of the Lord might be loosed also.

And David, in the exile and shame of an outlaw, gathers round him a company, in the world's esteem, as dishonoured as himself; but who prove the real strength and the only honour of the nation then, and, who afterwards shine in the brightest ranks of the people, when the kingdom is set up in righteousness. For it is to this David, this exiled David and his band of distressed and discontented ones, that Israel look in their trouble (1 Sam. 23: 1); and the enemy is made to know, that the presence of the God of Israel is with them. The Philistines are routed by them, and the Amalekites spoiled; but they defend and rescue their exposed and threatened brethren. (1 Sam. 22: 25.) Such and other famous deeds are done by them, and the priest and the prophet and the sword of Goliath (the symbol and the spoil of glorious war) are with them. As afterwards with the greater than David, there was another dishonoured company, who still were "the holy seed" of the nation, the publicans and harlots, the Galilean women, and she out of whom He had cast seven devils. Saul and his friends kept court, it is true, and the Scribes and the Pharisees sat in Moses' seat, but these were whited sepulchres; and the only place of real honour was to go without the camp, and there meet David and Christ, and their dishonoured bands. For this is the blessed way of Him who stains the pride of man, and lifts the beggar from the dunghill.

But because David was thus the Lord's chosen, Saul is his enemy, the victim that his enemy lusted after; and the more wisely David carries himself, and shows that God is with him, the more with infatuated heart Saul fears him and hates him and would fain kill him; in all this, going the way of Satan who, knowing the Son of God in his day, trembled before Him, and yet sought to destroy Him. So fully was Saul found to be of "the children of this world," and "the children of the wicked one;" a suitable king for the revolted Israel, his whole course showing us that nothing is too horrid for man, when God gives him up because of his wickedness. Does not the massacre at Nob, by the hand of his Edomite, show us this? Does not the massacre at Bethlehem by another Saul, show us this? And these are but samples of the ways of that "violent man," in the latter day, who doing according "to his will" shall "go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many."

But Saul can weep when he meets David; but so did Esau when he met Jacob. There is, however, no trusting these tears. They may but indicate the stony ground at best, while all the time the heart is not right with God. David could not trust Saul's tears, but turned away from them to his hold in the wilderness, and says, "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul." (1 Sam. 24, 27.) So with the Son of God; when many were believing in Jesus, beholding the miracles which He did, He would not commit himself to them (John 2); so unworthy is man, though he put forth his best, of the confidence of God.

And Saul can prophesy too. But so have others of the same generation. Balaam the prophet prophesied while loving the wages of unrighteousness. Caiaphas the priest prophesied, while he was thirsting for innocent blood. Judas the apostle wrought miracles while he carried the heart of a traitor. And Baalam the prophet, Saul the king, Caiaphas the priest, and Judas the apostle, are all of one generation. A new heart, or "another heart," as a gift for office, had been imparted to each of them, and in the Spirit they prophesied or wrought miracles. But all this tells us that it is not gifts that make us what we should be, and that nothing will do, if the heart be not with God.

1 Samuel 28 - 31.

My present business I will not forget is with Saul; but I cannot entirely pass by further notices, which these chapters suggest, of David and of Jonathan.

In David we see much that is indeed beautiful and excellent, richly savouring of the Spirit of God. But still we see also the failing of man. Troubles prove temptations to him, and such temptations as are at times too strong for him. He lies to Ahimelech, feigns madness before Achish, purposes vengeance on Nabal, and seeks a refuge among the uncircumcised. For such is man found to be even in this, one of his best samples. But such was not the Lord. He stood faultless, the author and finisher of faith. The faith of David at Nob or at Gath was not what it had been in the valley of Elah, but all was full and equal brightness in Jesus from the manger to the tree.

In Jonathan also we see beautiful faith. His soul was knit to David the moment he saw him, and he empties himself in order to fill David — he strips himself that he may clothe David. For God gives Jonathan clearly to see the divine purpose touching David. But then the question is, this being so, did Jonathan go far enough? ought he not to have more fully left his father, and joined the little outcast band in the cave of Adullam? and is not his inglorious fall at Gilboa the wages of his unbelief? I judge that is so; and thus Jonathan gives us another proof that there is none perfect but the Lord, that none but He has ever gone the walk of faith without some backward step, some error to the right hand or the left.*

*Nabal and Abigail I would also, in addition, notice here for a little. Their history is quite in character with that of Saul and David — gentler in its tone, but still of the same general character. It is a scene in which the woman, the weaker vessel, acts, but acts in the same spirit of faith with David, while the same person, "the fool," or" he violent man," shows himself in Nabal as he had done in Saul. And David and Abigail meet at last, while Saul and Nabal alike perish under the hand of God. David leaves the court of the apostate, and Abigail the house of the fool, and they meet, first, "without the camp," and then "on the throne! And so with the Lord and the church. He like David, has the scene of deeper trial to go through, and the more extended field of toil to go over; but the church, the weaker vessel, has to know in her measure, something of the same, and like Abigail to forsake her home in the faith of her beloved, to leave the house of the fool for the Lord's anointed.

And here let me add that nothing but faith could have warranted either Jonathan's or Abigail's conduct. The one would have been a rebellious son, and the other a rebellious wife, had they not both understood and believed God's purposes concerning David. But God's claim upon faith knows no rival, and calls for the sacrifice of the claims either of a father or a husband. Human claims fall before it. And thus the Lord, makes upon us the claims of God himself, when He says, "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me." Had He not come with the very authority of God Himself, He could not have claimed thus much from us; and the heart that answers this claim can say nothing less to him than, "my Lord, and my God." — This is one way in which the scripture preaches His divine glory to us.

But I must now hasten to the closing scenes of this solemn and affecting history. For the night of Israel is now setting in with many a dark and heavy cloud. (1 Sam. 28.) Samuel is dead, the Philistines as strong and threatening as ever, David the deliverer of the people forced without the camp, and our poor king, the slave of his lusts, all fear and confusion. He enquires of God, but there is no answer, even as it is written, "because I have called, and ye refused, I will mock. when your fear cometh." The Lord was now building against him, and setting him in dark places — He was hedging him about, and making his chain heavy, and when he now cried, He shut out his prayer. It was indeed a day of darkness and trouble to Israel, as it will be by and by. There was now a forsaking of the living for the dead, and a seeking unto wizards that peep and that mutter, as there will be in the vexation of the latter day. The day of Israel's final iniquity is now anticipated — it is "trouble and darkness and dimness of anguish," as it will be then. (Isa. 8: 20-22.)

At different seasons of the ripening of man's iniquity, there has been a confederacy of kings and their counsellors against the Lord and His Anointed. Thus Pharaoh took council with the magicians to withstand Moses. Balak sent for Balaam to curse Israel. The Jews with Caiaphas their counsellor rage against the Lord, and imagine evil. And so in the latter day, the confederacy of the beast and the false prophet will form itself against the power, and in despite of the glory and worship of God. And thus at the close of the iniquity, whether it be in Egypt, in Midian, in Israel or in Christendom, man puts forth his full strength, forming confederacies between the wise ones and the great ones of the earth "The carpenter encourages the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smites the anvil;" but all that is only made to show forth the greater glory of Him who sits above all water-floods. His patience has then been despised, His waiting to be gracious has then been neglected, and "the grounded staff," the decreed vengeance, has only to take its course.

And now, in our history, we get another instance of the same desperate effort of man of the consummation of his sin. Saul with the witch of Endor is another apostate king in consultation with his evil counsellor for the filling up the measure of his iniquity. (1 Chr. 10.) The cup was now about to be full, and judgment at the doors ready to enter.

Saul, I may here observe, had never set up an idol in the land, though that had been so much the way of Israel both before and after him. He had rather been moved with the desire of setting up himself, thus more clearly marking his brotherhood, as I have before observed, with that wilful one of the last days, who is not to regard any God but to magnify himself above all. And with this desire he had already cleared the land of wizards and witches.

But even this light was darkness in him, for it was himself and not the God of Israel that he would fain bring in instead of the idol. But now that he is losing himself, and the world, as he fears, is departing from him, he will readily enough strike hands with any helper, and form confederacy with even the witch of Endor. The way which the Lord now takes in hand to deal with this confederacy, is very striking, By his prophet Ezekiel he has said, "Every one that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him according to the multitude of his idols." (Ezek. 14: 1-8.) Now this, I judge, was just the sway of the Lord in this case. Saul was a corrupt man, in whose heart, and before whose face, the world, as his idol and stumbling block, was set; and because of this the Lord now answers him Himself. He takes the business out of the hand of the witch altogether, gives Samuel for a moment according to Saul's desire, but it is only in judgment, only "according to the multitudes of his idols," only to tell him of the vengeance that was now at the very doors prepared for him, his house, and his people. The witch is set aside, just indeed as Balaam had been. Balak, like Saul, had consulted the prophet; but the prophet, like the witch, had been overruled and disappointed. He could not go beyond the word of the Lord, but simply speaks as the Lord constrained him; as here the witch is confounded, and cries out in fear, not knowing what she saw, for the Lord had taken the business into His own hand according to the word of the prophet. And thus this appearance and word of Samuel was another hand-writing upon the wall, marking judgment against another profane king with the finger of God Himself.*

*See another instance of this in the case of Jeroboam and Abijah, (1 Kings 14.)

The Lord thus in Saul illustrates His own principle of acting as revealed by Ezekiel. It was too late now for any thing but an answer in judgment. Like Esau, Saul might have had God for his portion. The birthright was his, but he sold it. For the honour that cometh from man, he sold it, as Esau did for a mess of pottage. And now there is no place of repentance for hum. He beseeches Samuel, but the door was shut, and the master of the house had risen up.

And Saul was no more renewed by all this than God was led to repentance by it. The prophet going from the dead will not persuade, where the living prophet has been refused. Esau might weep at the loss of the blessing, but he still hated his brother. So here Saul for a while is amazed and troubled, lying on the earth and refusing to be comforted; but the trouble and amazement pass by, and he takes of the woman's hand and is refreshed by her dainties. Thus all this is only another stage in his downward path, rather progress than interruption in his dark and evil way. As in Israel His people afterwards, the raising of Lazarus did but strengthen the enmity against the Lord, and carried them onward only the more rapidly to finish their sin at Calvary. (John 11: 47.)

And now we have only to follow our infatuated king to the place of judgment, the "day of visitation." He had rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord had rejected him. His sin had gone before unto judgment — no inquiry after it need now be made. Every passage of his evil reign had declared it, and now he has only to meet the judgment. Accordingly in the strength of that food which he had received at the hand of his evil counsellor, he goes out against the uncircumcised, but it is only to fall before them. (1 Sam. 31.) But not the death of all men does he die. He dies as a fool dies, slain by his own sword; his sons fall with him, and his army is routed by the enemies of the Lord. "Saul died, and his three sons, and his armour-bearer, and all his men that same day together." For it was the Lord, and not the Philistines, that had a controversy with him. The day was the Lord's, and in the day of the Lord the apostate king and his host fall. "'They lie uncircumcised with them that go down to the pit"; and he comes to his end, as another shall do, and there is none to help him. (Dan. 11: 45.)

Thus all ends in the fearful day of Mount Gilboa. Our king has presented us with a fearful pattern of the apostate and his end. He was one indeed who left his first estate. Chosen, anointed, gifted for office, he stood at first in the full title and exercise of the throne; but by transgression he fell, and his office another is to take. Lost, infatuated, child of this world! Here was death the wages of sin again, here was the end of man's and of Israel's way, ruin and confusion and the full power of the enemy, the harvest of whirlwind from the wind which they had sown, the end of that storm of rain and thunder which they had been called to listen to at the beginning of their sin. (1 Sam. 12.)

Our Lord has said, "For judgment am I come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind." So is it in these scenes. (1 Sam. 29 - 31.) Here "the lame take the prey," and the stout ones "bow down under the prisoners." The poor outcast David with his little goodly band does mighty deeds which are still to be had in remembrance; but Saul, with the strength of his camp and the glory of his court perishes, the sport and reproach of the uncircumcised. The, spoils of Amalek go among David's friend, while Saul's armour hangs in the house of Ashtaroth and his head in the temple of Dagon. "This is David's spoil," was said over Amalek; while the Philistines had to publish every where among their people, that "Saul was dead."

Thus are the bows of the mighty broken, while they that stumbled are girded with strength. Because for judgment has the Lord come into the world that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind.

Well, beloved brethren, surely we have reason to remember Saul, as we are charged by our blessed Master to remember Lot's wife. In him we see the man of the earth perishing in his own corruptions; and in his history we read the end of one whose inward thought was that his house should have continued for ever, but whose way proved his folly. "Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness."

Can you and I sit down on the ruin of all that which Saul lived for, and still find that we have lost nothing? Can we look at the world failing us, and yet know that our real inheritance is untouched? Has "the God of glory" as yet led us out from the world? Have we as yet cast our anchor within the veil? Is our "good thing" with Jesus? O brethren, is there not a cause to sound the warning of the history of Saul in our ears? does it not show us, that "the friendship of the world is enmity against God?" He sought its honour, and what it had to give; and that he might make sure of that, he gave up God. And are not we pressed and tempted by the same world that ruined him? Oh that our blessed, blessed, Lord may, by His grace set our hearts upon Himself, and our eye upon His glory, so that we may stand on the wreck of all that can be wrecked, and still find that our portion is like the everlasting hills! Amen, Lord Jesus!

The Sons of Korah

The Sons of Korah.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 20, p. 191.

There is something peculiarly sweet in the songs of the sons of Korah, and few more precious than Ps. 84. But who are these sons of Korah? Many of our readers will say, "Sons of Korah; why, did not the sons of Korah go down alive into the pit when the earth opened her mouth and swallowed those wicked men Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and all their wives and children?" Let us turn to the Scriptures and read Numbers 16. How terrible is sin in the sight of the Lord! "Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins. So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side." Now mark in the next clause Korah is omitted. In verse 25 there is no statement that the sons of Korah went down with their father; but in Num. 26: 11 we read, "Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not." Yes, in the riches of sovereign grace they were saved from going down alive into the pit. And this was not all. As part of the family of Kohath they had given to them the cities of refuge, of which Hebron is named first. (1 Chr. 6: 54-67.) Oh, how our God delights in mercy! Grace spares them from the pit, and gives them the place of Abraham; for Abraham dwelt in Hebron. (Gen. 13: 18; Gen. 18: 1.) Have we been saved from the pit, children of wrath, even as others, brought in sovereign grace to dwell in the heavenlies, not with Abraham, but in Christ? Oh, blest city of eternal refuge, Jerusalem on high! Saved from the lowest depths of the pit, these very sons of Korah "were over the work of the service, keepers of the gates of the tabernacle . . . had the oversight of the gates of the house of the Lord . . . and were over the chambers and treasuries of the house of God." What a stewardship! "All the instruments of the sanctuary, and the fine flour, and the wine, and the oil, and the frankincense, and the spices." (1 Chr. 9: 19-32.) What types of instruction to us! Saved from the lowest depths of hell, and brought to dwell in the eternal refuge of the presence of God by the blood of Jesus. And now what a stewardship — all the riches of the glories of Christ committed to us, who were children of the pit.

Is Christ thus precious to us? And does not all this tell out the varied ministries of the redeemed children of God? All these precious treasures of Christ are committed to us. How great the responsibility! how rich the privilege! Strength was given to these sons of Korah. They were "mighty men of valour," "strong men," "able men for strength for the service," and each had his appointed service. (1 Chr. 26: 1-20.) The royal guards of the hidden king, guards of the house, and guards of the foundation. (2 Chr. 23: 3, 4, 5-19.) Saved from the pit, we are called to be the royal guards of the hidden but coming King of glory — guards of the house of God, guards of foundation truth. One more privilege of these sons of Korah with their brethren-sanctified in holiness, they had the happy service of distributing the oblations of the Lord, and the most holy things. Oh for more whole-hearted devotedness to Him whom we shall soon meet in the air! J. G. B.

Latter Times and Last Days

Latter Times and Last Days.

J. G. Bellett.

Section 3 of: Musings on Scripture, Volume 3

(also in Miscellaneous Papers.)

It is sorrowful to have to look at departures from God and His truth. It has been said of the Lord, that His soul tasted some of its bitterest grief, when He looked on the treachery of Judas; and ours should be thus affected when we think of the corruptions of Christendom, which are as the kiss and the treason of that apostle again.

The "mystery of iniquity" had began to work, we know, in the times of the apostles. And as the small seed cast into the ground carries with it the form and character of all that which the harvest is afterwards to manifest and Yield, so the leaven that was working secretly then, to the keen eye of the Spirit in the apostles had in it the varied evils, which, in the progress of corruptions, were to be manifested in Christendom: so that Paul guards Timothy even then against the pravities of both "the latter times" and "the last days," as though Timothy himself were in the midst of them.

But these pravities are different. In "the latter times," there was to be a departure from the word of God, or from the religion of "the truth," which alone is "godliness." Consequently there would be the giving heed to something beside the word or the truth, to "seducing spirits," and to "doctrines of devils" or demons. Then there would be speaking lies "in hypocrisy," making an exhibition of religion; and all this man's religion, or what man has got up, would "sear the conscience," deaden it to God's religion, or the religion of "the truth," fortified, as it would be, by man's "forbiddings" and "abstinences," which must be complied with and practised, though so contrary to the thoughts and gifts of God (see 1 Tim. 4).

"The last days," on the other hand, were not to be religious, but infidel. Superstitious vanities were to yield to man's will and independency. He was to be a lover of "himself," and in the train of that "heady," "high-minded," "disobedient to parents," "covetous," and such like — all qualities and characters making him as one who had broken the bands, and cast away the cords; not religious, but wilful. And in the midst of all this, there was to be the "form of godliness," — the appearing to return to that from which the "the latter times" had departed, "godliness," or the religion of "the truth;" but, when looked at a little within, no "power" would be found, though so much "form" (2 Tim 3).

Now, here we see a great moral reaction. All the cords and bands of the latter times castaway, and man indulging and admiring himself — religious vanities gone, but human independency asserted.

And these things have had their day. In the two great characteristic eras in the history of Christendom we get them — in the times before and since the Reformation. In the times before, there was man's religion, opposing itself to "the truth," and having its own vanities; in the times since, there has been man's pride, asserting his independency and breaking off all bonds. These have been the characters of the two eras. Of course something of the second was known during the time of the first, and much of the first still lives in the second; but these different pravities are the characteristics of the two eras.

And, what is a very solemn truth, I judge that the history of corrupted Christianity will close by a kind of coalition between the two pravities. And of such a state of things we get the pattern in the time, of our blessed Lord, when there were both man's religion and man's independency combined against Him, — the unclean spirit who had gone out, having himself returned and brought other spirits more wicked than himself. There was Jewish religion, which would not let its votaries go into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; and there was Jewish infidelity, which would say: "We have no king but Caesar." This is a solemn, and fearful prospect. Surely there is real godliness in the midst of it all, but the sight is dreadful.

And there was the counterpart of what I have been here tracing in the wilderness. There was first the calf, then the captain — the two ensigns of Israel's departure from God during their journey from Egypt to Canaan, the two distinct standards of rebellion set up at different eras.

The calf was the ensign of man's religion. Man had his own gods then, and in eating and drinking and rising up to play man exhibited his religion — spake "lies in hypocrisy." The captain was the ensign of man's infidelity. Man was his own God then, setting up himself to be his own leader, as though answerable to none, breaking all bands, heady, high-minded."

Thus, by either the calf or the captain, man is ever working against God and His truth. It is either false religion or a spirit of independency that is moving him. And reaction is always to be dreaded, even by the true worshippers and saints of God, as is also the spirit of the times in which they live. Both of these must be watched against. If the present time exhibit much of the spirit of human pride and independency, of course the saint has to guard against being drawn into the stream, and carried along the current which has set in around him. But he has also to guard against reaction. He has to watch and pray, that he may not, through dread and hatred of the present form of evil, look for relief by a return to the previous form of evil. I believe there is much of both of these at present. I see people who should have stood only in godliness; dropping into the current of these times; and in the revival of high-church principles, and return to ecclesiastical ceremonies and observances of human imposition. There is evident unhealthy reaction among men of a sensitive righteous order of mind, who have marked the evil that is now predominant, and have sought relief from it, but have been turned back by Satan to the righteousness of man and away from "godliness" or the religion of "truth." In avoiding the evil of "the last days" they have returned to that of the "latter times," at least in measure.

In the midst of all this condition of things, I believe the poor saint of God, "who walks in the truth," as John speaks, may now see himself. His path is narrow. Errors on both sides threaten and attract him. The calf and the captain are erected as the standard of rival parties. The word alone is to work his passage through both, and the Spirit to lead him along it; he is to "purify himself by obeying the truth through the Spirit." He has been baptised to the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and his soul is to know its living communion according to this. He has to continue in the things that he has learnt, knowing the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make a child, a fool in this world's wisdom, wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. He is to know that, as a sinner, he is cast only upon God — God, and not man, has to do with him as a sinner. And taking his sin, yea, his sins too, into the presence of God, he is to see them there, by faith, washed away by the precious blood of a precious Sacrifice. He has to keep his conscience unclouded, so that his living communion with the Father and the Son, in the life of the Holy Ghost, be not broken, and to walk in the love of the Spirit with all who are Christ's, and in the charities of the gospel with all men. Let him do withal what service among the saints he may be fitted to do by gift of the Spirit, and what service to others he may have opportunity to fulfil, waiting daily for the Son from heaven, Who, he is to know, has delivered him from the wrath to come.

A Letter

A Letter.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 14, 1887, p. 1.

(This letter is printed from the writer's own MS., and has not been, within the editor's knowledge, before published. Several more will be given (D.V.) as opportunity offers.)

My Dear Brother, — Faith counts upon the end from the beginning, as our hymn has it —

"The guilt of twice ten thousand sins

One moment takes away;

And grace, when first the war begins,

Secures the crowning day."

This calculation upon the end at the beginning is found in Moses' song. (See Exodus 15: 17-19.) It is a fine exercise of the soul. Faith knows what the end must be from what the beginning has been. The whole journey, as we know, is finely pictured in Israel from Egypt to Canaan, or from Exodus 12 to Joshua 4. It begins with the settlement, the full and perfect settlement, of the greatest question of all — the question of our relationship with God. In Exodus 12 that is the matter. It was no time of conflict as between Israel and Egypt, but as between the judgment of God and Israel found in the place of judgment. It was like the question between God and our souls, and the blood on the door-post settled it, and settled it for ever.

"The guilt of twice ten thousand sins

One moment takes away."

The destroying angel is turned aside by the blood on the door of that house, where most surely he would have entered, carrying death with him, but for the blood. That blood was God's provision for settling matters between Himself and Israel in the doomed land of Egypt. It effectually blunted the sting or power of death, and it did it all alone, in great ease and simplicity. Nothing else could have done anything at such a moment; but that. blood alone did everything that such a moment needed — a moment that was to decide whether Israel were to live or die, to be saved or to perish.

In such a character Israel starts for the journey. The greatest of all questions was settled — their relationship to God; and this being so, they begin, as it were, to live; so that the very month in which all this took place was to be to them the beginning of months. And well is it when the soul owns that this is the first great principal question — that others, be they what they may, are but, can be but, second to this" Have I found it between God and my soul?" Thus at peace with God, Israel moves onward. Soon they find themselves at their wits' end; the strength of Pharaoh is behind them, and the Red Sea in front, and it seems as that it was only a choice of deaths — the slaughter or the flood. But He who was in Egypt with them yesterday is today with them on the road out of it. The pillar can do its business as effectually as the blood. It may be, and it is, a different business, but it is disposed of with equal ease. The blood is not in use now; but the pillar serves, because the blood had already served; the pillar defends, —  because the blood had already redeemed. Simple and precious, the blood, as I may say, pledges the pillar — pledges all that Israel may need; for

"Grace, when once the war begins,

Secures the crowning day."

Accordingly the pillar comes between the two camps. It is darkness to the one and light to the other, so that Egypt does not touch Israel; and the host of Israel go on and through the sea, when the host of Egypt, in all its strength and flower, perish in it.

Thus is the journey begun. It was as blood-bought people who were taking it, and it is now seen that such a people shall be a defended and a conquering people. The blood pledged the pillar. The song declares this. There had been no song till now. Fitly so. The hour of redemption from the judgment of the Lord had been enjoyed in silence, this hour of deliverance from Egypt was celebrated in a song. The silence may have been of a deeper tone than even the song, but it was also a fitter expression of the joy of the moment. Israel enjoyed the thought of the blood that was redeeming them from the righteous judgment of God by feeding on the paschal lamb, and all in silence: they now enjoyed the sight of the vanquished enemy in the lifting up of their voice in a shout of praise. These distinctions are full of beauty. The silence of the paschal hour was of a deeper character, but it was fitting that it should not have been after the manner of the fervent triumphant hymn of the Red Sea.

Redeemed from judgment, and conquerors of the enemy that would have overwhelmed them, Israel proceed on their way. And a chequered scene they pass through! Necessities call for supplies, and infirmities and trespasses need forgivenesses and healing. The Lord is present; He proves His resources and His grace. He feeds, He disciplines, He rebukes, and yet pardons. And be the demands on Him what they may, or be they repeated as they may, He never leaves them. If Israel bring a pilgrimage of forty years upon themselves, the Lord will be in the wilderness with them for forty years. As God over all, blessed for ever, He is seated between the cherubim, in the sanctuary, the Lord or the glory of the very holy of holies; but the same glory abides as continually in the cloud outside. The God of the camp is the Guide and Companion of the camp; and though He may be grieved, and have to express His displeasure, He never leaves them. His arm is not shortened, nor is His ear heavy.

Say, is Israel a happy people still? Is Israel a less happy people than at the beginning, when in Egypt they dwelt under the covert of the blood? Circumstances have changed, but God has not. They are in the very heart of the wilderness. It is wilderness all around them, while in Egypt it was only the wilderness before them. But are they a less happy people now than then? Can any argument be drawn from the pillar to prove this? They have been made to know trial and need, and weariness and enemies, and, through the betraying of their foolishness again and again, the rod and the discipline. But are they less happy than they were? Have they any reason to be so? Are they more straitened in God now than then? Is the pillar the witness of another than the blood or the song had given them?

No, beloved, this is not so. They are not straitened in God. And if they loved Him, the movement of the pillar would be as welcome as the hour of the song. The very wilderness, in all its circumstances, is given to them to this end — to prove whether they would indeed obey the Lord, and thus to know what was in their heart towards Him. (Deut. 8: 2.) Was such an opportunity ungrateful or unwelcome to them? Would it be to us at this day, if indeed we loved a person? Should we resent some call to serve, some occasion to give proof that we had him in our heart, that there was something there for him? We know we should not. We know that we should rather give place to such opportunities, if indeed we loved him. And the wilderness to Israel was all that, and life to the saints in this world is all that. As far as we are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God," we shall be uneasy and fretted, and impatient and disappointed; but as far as we love, anxious to prove that our heart's are with Christ, these times of journeying, through abounding and through need, through good report and through evil report, through humblings and changes, through weariness or solitude, will not be resented. In themselves they are not joyous. Nothing can make them in themselves other than they are — grievous. But the pillar tells us of the presence of a glorious Friend, who condescends to be our Companion from first to last, though the way always witness our exile, and at times our shame and weakness. It is a happy people we are to be all along the road. The blood, the song, the pillar are only different tokens of the very same Jesus in whom we are never straitened. Just at the end of the way there was a confederacy on the heights of Peor against Israel, as just at the beginning there was a confederacy on the borders of the land at the Red Sea. The Lord has a great occasion to prove Himself the very same to Israel after forty years' sore trial with them as He had been at the outset. And so He does. However we may entertain such opportunities, we may say He welcomes them to prove what is in His heart towards us.

He meets Balaam and Balak, and all their attempts — their altars and their enchantments on the heights of Baal and of Peor — all alone. Israel is stretched out in the valleys beneath, their very rest there not being allowed to be disturbed by even a report of what was going on — a moment, as it was in one sense, full of imminent peril to them. The Lord meet's the confederates all alone. As in the day of Pharaoh and the sea, Israel had not to raise a band or strike a blow, and all the tokens of the liars are frustrated. There is no enchantment against Israel. The Lord lets the Moabite and the Ammonite know this, and Israel may stop on and take their rest when the question is raised. Can anything erase them from the palms of the hands of the Lord? When the occasion is set for the proving whether indeed He still had them in His heart, all the attempts and powers of darkness shall learn the secrets of that bosom. If we did but value what we have in Him, dear brother; if we but estimated our condition in relation to the Lord, and not in relation to circumstances, all would be joy in the spirit. It is there we fail. We love circumstances, and not the divine favour. We live in the power of circumstances, and not in the light of the Lord's countenance. And we are dull and low, and half-hearted. That is the secret of our bosoms, though we know the secret of His. Were it not so with us, the journeys under the cloud, chequered as they are, would find us as happy a people as the hour of the song had witnessed. It is one Jesus throughout, whether it be the day of the blood, the song, or of the pillar — one and the same Jesus, who was here with us amid the circumstances of human life, died for us on the cursed tree, now lives in heaven for us, and will give us His unchanged Self in glory for ever.

But further — for there is a stage beyond the heights of Peor in the journey of Israel, there is the passage of the Jordan — the moment when for ever the wilderness is to be put behind the back of Israel, as there had been in Egypt the hour when the wilderness was all before them, and, after they crossed the sea, the times and the seasons when the wilderness was all around them. And now it is not the blood, or the song, or the pillar, but the ark, and the feet of the priests. New occasions bring out new agencies. Other necessities display other resources, but the same Lord; different administrations, but the same Jesus. The arm is not shortened, and the help of Israel for the Jordan is as perfect as was the help at the Red Sea. Not a wave of the swellings and overflowings of the river touch the sole of the foot of the feeblest or most distant of all the tribes. The waters are again a wall on the right hand and on the left. The ark stations itself in the very midst of the river, and there it stands till all had gone clean over. Its presence more than encourages them, when nature might have sunk and had a thousand misgivings. Would not these watery walls give way? Would not the river from above assert its rights, and claim its possession of a thousand years? Would not the source of that river force its title on the trespassers? The calm and assured aspect of the priests as they bore the ark, and stood with it there in the very place of the river's height of pride and strength, gave all such questionings their answer, and stilled every misgiving. The people all passed over dryshod; the ark gave them its presence till all was done. The waters would have been first overwhelming the ark, had they been able to touch even a sole of the foot of the feeblest of the tribes. And all this crowning mercy visits them without the Lord for a single moment calling to their remembrance a single evil they had committed all the journey thitherto. He gave there indeed liberally and upbraided not. He sees no iniquity in Jacob, no perverseness in Israel. Everything that is done is done by an arm of conquering strength, and by a heart of perfect, unupbraiding love; and Israel passes on to their inheritance under the very same God of grace by whom they had passed out. from the place of death and judgment. The earliest pledge is redeemed at the latest moment; and the song, which in spirit we had at first, is sung again under a fresh breath in the power of the truth of it —

"And grace, when once the war begins,

Secures the crowning day."

*  *  *

Accept this, beloved in the Lord, as a little remembrance that we may again, though absent in body, sit and meditate in His truth and presence in spirit together. The Lord bless you.

Ever your affectionate brother, J. G. Bellett, March 14th, 1852.

A Letter

A Letter.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 14, 1887, p. 259.

The Lord bless you, my dear sister; and if called on to take the journey somewhat more solitarily than your heart had been wont to count upon, and to know sorrows which had not come within the range of your forebodings, may His hand be with you, and its well-known staff. "God is His own interpreter."

There is no providence by which He deals with us that He will not interpret by-and-by, nor is there any promise by which He sustains and comforts that He will not abundantly make good. There is nothing excessive in the divine descriptions. The spirit of revelation is surely under and not over the mark, though the promises are "exceeding great and precious," and the reality will rather be according to the confession of the Queen of Sheba — "The half was not told me, it was a true report which I heard in my own land."

How beautifully does Luke 1 rise upon the heart in connection with this' It has just struck me very peculiarly. I read it like a new scene of light and joy breaking in after a gloomy and wasted interval, and exceeding all that had been in the earlier days, or that had been promised by the prophets. There had been most surely a return from Babylon in the times of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and they were good times. The zeal of the servants of God, the restoration of the house and the city, the revival of the feasts, and the order and services of the people, made them so. But such times had been clouded. The day was overcast; yea, while it was yet but morning a change had come, and Malachi gives us an evil account of his time, in which condition, with a bright promise to the remnant, Israel goes on till the times of the New Testament — a dreary and evil interval indeed, without one single ray, as from the light of the Lord or the spirit of revelation, to animate or cheer it. But though it tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, and come with a bright witness. For such is this exquisite chapter. The morning breaks, the heavens are opened, as it were, and the dreary wastes of Israel are revisited; and as in the twinkling of an eye all this takes place. No special harbingers, no marvellous notices of the coming change; but the priest is at the accustomed altar, and the people in their places according to the manner, and in the ordinary current of everyday life. The women of the land were preparing for espousals (Luke 1: 27), when suddenly the heavens open, and visitations are made alike to the temple and the cottage, to the priest, and to the poor, unknown virgin of Nazareth.

The suddenness and the brilliancy of all this are very blessed. And how it tells us that the distance of heaven from earth is nothing when the due season comes for bringing them into communion! The ladder is a short one that will reach from heaven to earth by-and-by. And in this chapter we get a sight of it for a moment, or a sample of some of its happy services. Here the angels of God are ascending and descending. Gabriel enters without wrong into the place of the priests, and stands even at the right side of the altar. He does not take the high place of the angel Jehovah, and ascend in the flame; nor does he, like Jesus-Jehovah, speak of himself as greater than that temple; but being a heavenly one, he enters without trespass upon the place of the priest. But so does he enter without reluctance into the place of the poor, unknown Nazarene. The earth may not be so prepared to receive such visitations as heaven is to make them, but Gabriel has for both Zacharias, and Mary the same healing and gladdening word" Fear not." And joy, the most satisfying joy, diffuses itself everywhere — old men and maidens, young men and children, join in the millennial dance; Mary and Elizabeth, and the child in the womb, and Zacharias, in their several ways attest their joy, and in principle all creation is lighted up in gladness. Here is more than earlier days had known or voices of prophets had foretold. Ezra and Nehemiah had never had such days of heaven upon earth as these, nor had Malachi told the remnant of such tastes of soul-satisfying joy as Elizabeth had when she saluted Mary, and as Mary had when she uttered her song of praise. He had indeed said, that they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and thought on His name together; but now in the hearts and on the lips of such a remnant the gladdening light of the Spirit is shed, and the triumphant strains of the Spirit are poured forth. And the suddenness as well as the brilliancy of all this! Who was calculating on a bit of this the day before? And then the ease with which heaven visits the earth when the due time comes. No reserve in coming side by side with the highest, no reluctance in coming side by side with the poorest and meanest. The ladder stretches its ample foot across the length and breadth of the land, and down to every point of it "abundant entrance" is ministered to the angels in the heavens above. All these features of this communion attract me. Would that the soul could wait more in the joy and patience of faith for the great original of all this — for that millennial day when the ladder shall thus be raised, and the heavens after this pattern shall open on the earth again, when the passage downward shall be thus in full ease and brilliancy; and if the receivers of the joy that is brought be made so happy by it, what shall be the happiness of them who bear it to them, and who in their measure shall experience the divine prerogative, and know that it is more blessed to give than to receive? May your heart greatly rejoice in this. He will interpret the doings of His hands, and will outdo the sayings and promises of His prophets. May He graciously hold you up while you are passing the dreary interval.

*  *  *

With Mr.  -  I continue to have full and unreserved communion; but how painful to think that this should not be the general rule, but the exception! But so it is. Partition walls are thrown up, as well as veils cast over, by the god of this world, where the blood of Jesus and the Spirit of grace would throw down and rend. May the Lord greatly refresh and sustain your spirit. May the assurance of His love fill your heart. No one thought more blessed than that. It is so precious that the Holy Ghost makes it of His special service to impart that assurance to the heart. (Romans 5.) May you abound in hope also, longing as for the morning. He has gathered many, and will go on.

Believe me in unfeigned love, Your brother in Christ, J. G. B.

Extracts from letters

Extracts from letters.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend, vol. 12, 1885, p. 25.

"The Church is the temple of God. Among its services it has to teach angels, to edify itself through joints and bands in the Holy Ghost, to lead those outside to own God in the midst of His saints, to exercise discipline, to worship as a holy priesthood, and to show forth the Lord's death. It is moreover 'the pillar of the truth,' and as such must keep itself erect and firm. The writing on it is to be large and legible. Nothing is to be allowed to shake or blot it. Some may claim a right to try their hand with it, and plead many pretences. They may talk of brotherly forbearance, the gentleness of Christ, the duty of not judging another man's servant. But the pillar must still hold itself firm and inviolate. No such pretensions or pretences, nor any other, can be listened to. And occasions will arise when the integrity of the pillar is to be guarded with increased vigilance because of the enemy . . . .

And let me say, I honour the service of those who keep watch in the camp. The trumpet is made, among other purposes, for sounding an alarm on the approach of an enemy. All we can desire is that it may be used with priestly skill, and when it has called the camp into action, that the action itself be conducted according to the mind or word of God; for the battle is to be in His name, and for His kingdom . . . . I hold, as at the beginning, the broken, ruined condition of the Church. I know, and still would testify as ever, that 'the great house,' with its different vessels, is around us. I will say, as before, that no gathering of the saints can assume to be the candlestick in the place, and treat as darkness all that is not of itself; such order and such authority are gone. This we have ever said and still say. But with all this, we avow it, that we are not together as a convention — a voluntary convention of believers, but as part and parcel of the Church; and we have to take heed, that the principles and testimony of the house of God be preserved among us, according to our measure in the Spirit.

*   *   *   *   *

We have to take heed that the order and testimony of the house of God pass through our hands without contracting defilement. And indeed I would add, for my own admonition specially, dear brother, that we also have to take heed of heartless exercise of the mind over principles or doctrines. God is not to be so served. 'My son, give me thy heart.'

"September 18th, 1849. J. G. B."

Extracts from letters.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend, vol. 12, 1885, p. 166.

"Israel after their return from Babylon was Israel still. They had not the ark, the glory, nor the Urim, nor did they affect that to which such things were needed; but they fully recognized themselves as God's Israel. As far as they could they did the services of such, and behaved themselves as such; but they never did anything in any other character, or what was inconsistent with that character. This is much to be remembered. Did they, I ask, bring home with them the customs of the heathen? 'The latter house' was not what 'the former house' had been, and the old men wept; but as far as conditions allowed it, the ways of the two houses were alike. They never brought in the customs of the heathen; and as simply and surely as ever they took knowledge of themselves as the Israel of God. Their circumstances were changed; they were in ruins. Their fair things and their honourable things were spoiled. They were subject to the Gentile, but they were Israel still. This was their principle, and accordingly as soon as anything was discovered inconsistent with that it was judged. You remember the case of intermarriages, and the more pertinent one of Nehemiah revenging the act of Eliashib, who prepared a chamber for Tobiah the Ammonite in the house of the Lord. They owned their circumcision, their separation to God, as jealously as ever. They refused Samaritan brotherhood and communion with the Gentiles, while they were debtors to the patronage of the Gentiles, and were partaker of their bounty. Horonites, Ammonites, and Moabites were the same to them as ever they had been. No glory had entered the latter house as it had the former. This may have tried their faith. The ark had not been preserved for them as in another land of Philistines, nor had it returned to them as in victory from another temple of Dagon; it was lost to them. This may have tried their faith also. Nor had they their priest with Urim and Thummim. Thus were they in ruins, shorn of beauty and strength, and some of their brethren were still in Babylon. But in the presence and midst of all this, they avow themselves to be God's Israel as surely and simply as ever. They allow of nothing inconsistent with the former house, though they well knew, and were constrained to feel, that they had not all its glory in the latter house. This is for us, dear brother. We are in our way and measure to be 'stewards of the mysteries of God,' and that too under the holy sanction of being 'faithful.' And neither love sake or brotherhood sake, or any other impulse, is to prevail with us to forego the services which attach to so precious a stewardship. The peculiarities of the house of God are to be our peculiarities; and though we own Israelites in Babylon, we are not to own Samaritans or Chaldees in Zion; nor are we to own ways unworthy of Zion in a returned captive, though we see him the witness of ruins and weakness. This theme is worthy of our thoughts, and I confess I desire our dear brethren to take counsel upon it . . . . I own saints (to be sure I do) where I cannot see Church ruins; as, for instance, in the Establishment. The Establishment is not a Church ruin; it is an important thing in the earth, which must scorn the idea of ruins. Nay, it denies the Church in her very first element; for it has not gone to Christ as a stone 'disallowed of men,' but has linked His name with the government and men of the world, but God's dear people are there. But even when an assembly is not of that earthly and important character, and takes a lowlier bearing, yet it may not be a Church ruin, I must still inspect it whether or not it own the peculiarities of the house of God. Christendom is not to be mistaken for Church ruins . . . . The few who call on the Lord out of a pure heart form the Church ruins (2 Tim. 3), where I must be found. And it is a holy question for us, beloved, Are we upholding merely Christian fellowship? or are we dwelling according to the holiness of God within the precincts of a Church ruin? . . . It is needful to remember with increased care that the truth of God and the house of God have their blessed peculiarities; that not one of them is to be sacrificed to the morals, the politics, or the religion of man; and that we are not to mistake for them what man produces, be it as good as it may. Ruins are weak things, but still they tell of the original building. And so in our present weakness, we must still tell of the peculiarities of the Church. In the truth or mysteries witnessed by us, in the nature, subject, and purpose of our discipline, in the ways and ordinances of the assembly, in the whole process of our common edification, the peculiarities of the house of God must be seen. I avow ruins as simply as ever; but if it be necessary, I add that they are Church ruins, unlike either the old Roman temple or the buildings of the philanthropists and reformers of this our day.

J. G. B." December 18th, 1849.

A Letter

A Letter — Jeremiah.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 14, 1887, p. 29.

Beloved Brother, — I had a little scrap on Jeremiah lying by me. I do not know if it will suit the present current of your thoughts, but it may give a little communion for some half hour, and it is well to look at the growing character of those boastful and yet religious days in which we live. The Lord keep us, dear brother, and surely He will; "for His mercy endureth for ever."

There is nothing like confidence in His love. Service and worship are precious, but to trust Him excels all. Better to walk before Him in childlike confidence than even in a spirit of prayer and watchfulness; but all suits the liberty and the holiness of His presence.

Believe me, Ever your affectionate, J. G. Bellett.

Jeremiah.

All was reality with Jeremiah. The present corruption was a reality to him, for he rebuked it, and mourned over it; the approaching judgment was a reality to him, for he wept at the thoughts of it, and deprecated it; the final glory was a reality to him, for he laid out his money upon it.

He had occasional refreshings of spirit from the glory. His sleep, and the dream that accompanied it in Jeremiah 31, was "sweet to him." It was a kind of moment in "the holy mount" to him, a transfiguration in spirit; for a light from the kingdom visited his soul thus. He had revelations, too, of "the Lord our righteousness," and could speak and write of Him. But not only as thus occasionally refreshed in spirit, and thus gifted to write and speak, but he was a suffering witness against "the present world," and he laid out his money on "the world to come." And it was this that completed his character, which would have been poor and wanting without it; for we may speak of Christ, and teach about the kingdom; but to witness for Him against a rejecting world, and to be "rich towards God" in the hope of His kingdom, this is to fill out and realize our character as saints.

We may covet these elements of character. Some of us, if one may speak for others, are but half Jeremiahs. We can talk of Christ, but can we suffer for Him? We may teach about the kingdom, but can we lay out our money upon it?

The parable of the potter in Jeremiah 18 was designed to let Israel know that they were, though brought into covenant, still within the range of the Lord's judgments and visitations; and accordingly in Jeremiah 19 the judgment is typically executed In John Baptist's time Israel is found in the same spirit of self-confidence. They said in that spirit, "We have Abraham to our father," and so under the Lord's ministry it is still the same — they still boast in the fatherhood of Abraham and of God. (John 8.) But these boasts were vain, as both John and the Lord tell them; that is, John and the Lord teach them again the lesson of Jeremiah 18 — that they were not, though in covenant bands, beyond the reach of judgment.

Now the object of the enemy in Matthew 4 was to get the Lord Jesus into the same condition with Israel; i.e., to inspire Him with confidence in the spirit of disobedience. He partially quoted Psalm 91, citing the promised security, but omitting the required or conditional obedience. We know how fully the Lord triumphed over the enemy, citing Deuteronomy 6, where obedience is Israel's declared ground of security. Thus the Lord in this feature of character, as in all beside, was the moral contradiction of man, or of Israel.

But all this has a lesson for us in this day. Christendom or Babylon has now taken this place of Israel of old. Babylon trusts in security, in spite of her moral condition. She says, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." (Rev. 18: 7.) But Revelation 18 is another action like that of the prophet in the potter's house, or in the valley of the son of Hinnom, teaching the unfaithful steward that the doom of the shattered vessel awaits him.

God never sanctions disobedience. He does not go into the garden of Eden to accredit Adam's sin, but to bring relief, in the way of grace, for it; so, in the mystery of the gospel, He utterly condemns sin while delivering the sinner. That fine chapter, 1 Samuel 4, witnesses this — that God will never sanction disobedience, nor does He ever commit Himself to His stewards. He commits Himself to His own gifts and calling (see Rom. 11), but never to His stewards. They are still answerable to Him, and disobedience works forfeiture. And Christ is the only Steward that ever kept covenant, that ever stood in the conditional place. Matthew 4 shows that He kept His blessings under Psalm 91, and His Israel's blessings under Deut. 6; but all others, in their several turns, have failed, and Babylon's boast is a lie.

We live in a moment when Babylon is filling itself afresh with this boast, just previous to her overthrow, when she is to meet the doom of the potter's vessel or of the millstone. The boast of "the eternal city"* only the more distinctly marks it for the judgment of God. It is a favourite thought with her, that, while other communions tremble for their safety, she is above all such fears. This is specious; but when listened to in the teaching of the Word it only the more awfully declares what she is, and her greater ripeness for God's judgment. For this boast is defiance; it is not faith in God, but real disavowal of His claims. It is the denial of her subjection to Him, of her being in the place of the steward's wife, answerable to him, and to his judgment. It is the very characteristic that completes her identification with that Babylon which says, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow;" and it leaves her ready for the judgment; as of the potter's vessel in the valley of the Son of Hinnom, so of the millstone in the hand of the angel.

*By "the eternal city" the writer, as many will understand, indicates Rome; i.e., the Papacy. — [ED.]

*  *  *

THE human mind cannot see the glory of Christ in having come off the throne of God to the cross; but the believer has received "the mind of Christ," and can see something of it; and he finds that according to the measure in which he can enter into the humiliation of Christ, in that same measure he sees the beauty of it.

The Link between Heaven and Earth

The Link between Heaven and Earth.

Isaiah 6.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 14, 1887, p. 80.

The link between heaven and earth has been signified from the beginning in various ways. Visions, dreams, and audiences, introducing the spirit of man to unseen regions, did this in their way. Angelic visits did it still more palpably. But more strikingly still, the appearances of the Son of God at all times; in patriarchal days very specially, but also in the days of the nation of Israel.

The translation of Enoch told of this link between heaven and earth; and so did that of Elijah, leaving behind him, as he became the heavenly man, his mantle, with its mystic virtues, for the use and endowment of one who was to know his place only in the earth.

Moses too called up to the elevation of the Lord of Israel, and there, as with the eye of the Lord, surveying the tribes of Israel  - the citizens of the earth — beneath him. All this tells the same; and all this tells the nearness of these different regions of the divine presence. They are but the several parts of the same temple, and, though separated, it is but a veil that lies between. And all this in figure teaches the mystery, even "the mystery of His will, which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him."

But if the passage be short, the title to make it is simple. The link between heaven and earth is seen; the descending of the Prince of life, who is the Son of man, has made it so. But the link between the glory and the poor sinner is seen also, the blood of the same blessed One makes it so.

Isaiah is brought into the presence of the glory. The throne of the Lord is seen, and His train fills the temple, while the seraphim, with veiled faces, worship. Nature in the prophet is overwhelmed. He takes knowledge of the glory and of his own uncleanness, but of nothing else. This was nature, and it is nature still. Nature does not rise out of these thoughts, it comes short of the glory of God. It takes knowledge of the two things — the divine presence, and our unfitness for it, like Adam, but that is all, and the distance is felt to be infinite.

But there was an altar in the scene to which the prophet was led as well as a throne, and the Lord's train, and the seraphim, and the smoke that filled the place, and the angelic worship, but the prophet knew nothing about it; and yet its virtue was such that, in the twinkling of an eye, it links what had been felt to lie at infinite distances. The live coal touches his lips, and there is no longer any mention of his uncleanness, no longer any sense of distance, no dismay of soul, no amazement, but such full and entire liberty, that the prophet forgets himself altogether, save as one who was now free to serve. "By faith he is free, by love he is subject." "Here am I, send me," says the delivered prophet, having boldness in the holiest; for "by faith the Christian rises to God, by love he descends to man." These fine conditions of soul Isaiah here represents, and we learn in him, as in a figure, that there are links between the glory and the sinner which can stand and answer the shock and the trial which conscience and the law and the accuser may occasion. J. G. B.

The Lord's Supper

The Lord's Supper.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend Vol. 5, p. 295.

From Bible Witness and Review, vol. 2.

We should, on divine authority, and in spiritual, scriptural intelligence, hold to it, that the Lord's supper is the due characteristic expression of the Lord's-day — that which should then be made principal. If we read Luke 22: 7-20, we shall learn that the passover of the Jews and the supper of the Lord being then exhibited successively — the one after the other — the latter thenceforth was to displace the former, and that for ever. The former, with other meanings attached to it, was the foreshadowing of the Great Sacrifice which was in due time to put away sin. The latter is now the celebration of the great fact that that sacrifice has been offered, and that, for faith, sin is put away. After the Lord's supper therefore is instituted, it is impossible to return to the passover. It would be apostasy — a giving up of God's lamb and of the atonement.

But if the supper has thus displaced the passover, we may then inquire, Is anything to displace it? We may read our answer in 1 Cor. 11: 26, and there learn that the Lord's supper is set as a standing institution in the house of God till the Lord's return. The Holy Ghost, through the apostle, gives it an abiding-place all through this age of the Lord's absence. I conclude accordingly that we are not to allow anything to displace the supper. It is of our faithfulness to our stewardship of the mysteries of God, to assert the right of that supper to be principal in the assembly of the saints. It has displaced the passover by the authority of the Lord Himself; but we, on the authority of the Holy Ghost, are not to allow anything to displace it. It is the proper service of the house of God. The Lord's-supper is the principal thing for the Lord's-day. This comes out naturally in the progress of the story of Christianity in the New Testament. We read in Acts 20: 7, "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread." And again, in 1 Cor. 11: 33, "Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another."

If we abandon the supper for a sermon, or for a large congregation, or for any other religious scene or service, we have given up the house of God in its due characteristic and divinely appointed business and worship. So far we are guilty of apostasy. We have not returned, it is true, to the displaced or superseded passover; but we have allowed something or another to displace or supersede what the Holy Ghost has set as principal in the house of God. And were we right-hearted, we would say, "What sermon would be more profitable to us? What singing of a full congregation more sweet in our ears than the voice of that ordinance which tells us so clearly and with such rich harmony of all kinds of music, of the forgiveness of our sins, of the acceptance of our persons, and of our waiting for the Lord from heaven, and all this in blessed and wondrous fellowship with the brightest display of the name and glory of God?"

Yea, the table at which we sit is a family table. In spirit we are in the Father's house. We are made by the table to know ourselves in relationship, and that lies just outside the realm of glory; for "if children, then heirs." If we be in the kingdom of God's dear Son, we are next door to the inheritance. (Col. 1) And there the table is maintained until Christ comes again.

The Lord's Supper:

The Lord's Supper:

A Memorial of Christ.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 11 p. 201.

The Lord's supper is to be eaten as a memorial or remembrance of Christ.

This is His own interpretation of it. The bread was mystically His body, the cup His blood, accomplishing the remission of sins. To eat and to drink of this feast was to partake of the virtues of His sacrifice, or to express such participation (1 Cor. 10: 18); and it was thus eaten in remembrance of Christ, in token of the soul's fellowship with what His sacrifice had accomplished for sinners. It was therefore to be eaten simply with thanksgiving. The remembrance of what the sacrifice of Christ had accomplished would properly be accompanied with nothing else. No supplication would be needed, because it is a finished work, a full remission which the table records.

To pray about the forgiveness of sins would be discordant with the voice of the table. It might be quite unintended, yet really a reproach upon the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. It would be building again the things which Christ had destroyed, and, in the language and sense of Galatians 2, making Him the minister of sin, making His blood like the blood of bulls and goats, only the remembrance and not the remission of sins.

But to surround the table with thanksgiving, to wait on the feast with praise for redemption, this would be knowing the work of the Lamb of God which the feast sets forth; and accordingly it is always as thus accomplished that the scripture presents it to us. Jesus, on taking the bread and the cup, gave thanks. (Matt. 20; Mark 14; Luke 22.) He did nothing else.

The Lord's blessing and giving thanks are, to all moral intents, in the same sense; and in the like mind the apostle calls it the cup of blessing, which we bless, the cup at the taking of which we bless, or speak well of the Lord, because by that cup, or by the death and blood-shedding of Jesus which. it sets forth, He has rightly entitled Himself to praise, or to hear Himself well spoken of; and again, speaking of it he says that, when the Lord parted the bread and cup among His disciples, He simply gave thanks. (1 Cor. 11: 23-26.)

It may be accompanied with confession of sin, because it implies our utter death in trespasses and sins, and therefore that would not be in discordance with the supper.

But still we do not find this attended to in any of the passages that refer to the supper, but in them it takes the simple form of a eucharistic feast, or a season of thanksgiving for the remission of sins. It says, as another once observed (at least the Table has this voice in it), "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto them that be heavy of heart: let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more."

This is so indeed. It is this precious strong drink which reminds us that our misery is gone, and our heavy hearts are then lifted up. It tells us not, like the blood of bulls and goats, that sin is remembered, but it is remitted. This is its peculiar characteristic voice. To give thanks in company with it is harmony, to pray about our sin is discordant.

But the service of self-judgment or self-examination may well wait on this feast, because we are by the remission of our sins called to holiness; just as of old the feast of unleavened bread accompanied the Passover. And as the Israelites celebrated the redemption from Egypt, they also searched the house for leaven; that they might put away all that offended Him who had redeemed them. This is most fitting, and indeed without this the Passover was not kept.

So with us, if we do not walk in a self-judging spirit, we are really not the blood-redeemed people, we do not discern the Lord's body; in other words, I believe we do not keep the feast of the Lord aright, if we are not honestly and holily searching for, and removing, all that would grieve the Lord. (1 Cor. 5; 6.)

This is in as full harmony with the Table, as thanksgiving is; and the cleansing out of the leaven should be done both from the congregation (1 Cor. 5) and from our individual selves. (1 Cor. 11: 28.) For we are one in our standing, au unleavened lump, and so should we be in our desires and diligence of soul. For the Lord's supper shows forth the Lord's death till He come.

The death of Jesus had this twofold sense. It published remission of sins, and all God's hatred of sin. It releases the sinner, and condemns the sin; and the supper eaten, both with thanksgiving and in the spirit of self-judgment, will be accordant with this. Eaten with prayer about our sins, or with a careless heart, in indifference to our sins, it will be utterly discordant.

It is to be a Passover in truth, with feast of unleavened bread, and therefore there is to be the expression of conscious redemption from Egypt, the place of death and scene of judgment; and this is thanksgiving. There is also to be the expression of renouncing that which has brought us into death and judgment; this is self-judgment. Such I believe to be the simple character which the scripture puts on the supper of the Lord.

Many indeed, and various, have been the additions which human religiousness has attached to it, but the word of God reproves them.

There is no warrant for consecrating the elements or separating them by process to the service of the Lord's table.

The bread and the wine are laid on the table as bread and wine; broken and poured out to figure the broken body and shed blood of Jesus; but no form or process is needful to give them title to be on the table for this use.

Neither, do I judge, have we warrant for asking God to bless us in the observing of this service, simply because it is our worship, or setting forth of His praise, rather [than] a waiting upon Him for some benefit to ourselves, either in soul or body. We bless Him in this act, rather than ask Him to bless us; we speak good of His name in it, by setting forth the memorial of what He has done, and do not supplicate Him to bless us or to speak good to us by conferring some fresh favour upon us.

I believe, if the word of God were very simply attended to in this matter, this beautiful service would be relieved of much that religiously encumbers it, and the table would give forth no uncertain sound.

Supplications about it, moreover, is utterly discordant with the service of this table; confession of sin might be made, but there would be no felt need of it; consecration of the elements would be altogether refused; seeking a blessing would not be thought of by the worshippers, [but blessing because we are blessed].

These common things would be laid aside, and the service would be an act of worship, giving the Lord the honour due unto His name in this age, until He comes again to gather fresh honours from the lips of His countless redeemed ones.

And it is this service or worship that ought to gather us to His name every eighth or resurrection day; and then things may be there given us of the Lord, such as the word of exhortation or of teaching, or the voice and spirit of supplication.

But we should go there to give to the Lord His praise such as the Table (which publishes through the riches of His grace the remission of our sins) does give Him.

This is entering His house, duly entering it, with praise, because He has already blessed us, and not with supplication for a blessing; entering it in the spirit of conscious victory over our enemies; tearing asunder all bonds, and silencing every tongue that would charge or condemn us.

It would be entering His house in a way worthy of that house, where mercy has rejoiced against judgment, where the sword of the destroying angel has been gloriously staid; where, therefore, the spirit of the worshipper says as he enters, "In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me upon a rock, and now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy, I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord." (Ps. 27.)

May His courts be thus entered in spirit now! for the bread and cup are there, and the veil is gone. J. G. B.

Thoughts on the Lord's Supper

Thoughts on the Lord's Supper.

J. G. Bellett.

from  Musings on Scripture, Vol. 1.

The Lord's Supper is to be eaten as a memorial, or remembrance of Christ. This is His own interpretation of it. The bread sets forth His body; — the Cup His blood, — accomplishing the remission of sins.

To eat and drink of this feast is to express our participation in the virtues of His sacrifice (1 Cor. 10: 18). And it is thus eaten in remembrance of Christ, in token of the soul's fellowship with what His sacrifice has accomplished for sinners; it is therefore to be eaten with thanksgiving. This remembrance of what the sacrifice of Christ has accomplished must be accompanied with that. No supplication is needed, because it is a finished work, — a full remission, — which the Table records.

To pray about the forgiveness of sins would be discordant with the voice of the table: — it would be (quite unintended, it might be) a reproach upon the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. It would be a building again the things which Christ had destroyed; and in the language and sense of Gal. 2 making Him "the minister of sin": — making His blood, like the blood of bulls and of goats, only the remembrancer and not the remitter of sin. But to surround it with thanksgiving, — to wait on the feast with praise for redemption, — this would be honouring the work of the Lamb of God, which the feast sets forth; — and accordingly it is always as thus accompanied that the Scriptures present it to us. Jesus, on taking the bread and the cup, "gave thanks" (Matt. 26, Mark 14, Luke 22). He did nothing else. The words "blessing" and "giving thanks" are, to all moral intent, used in the same sense. And in the like mind, the Apostle calls it "the cup of blessing which we bless"; — the cup at the taking of which we bless, or speak well of the Lord: — because by that death and blood-shedding of Jesus, which it sets forth, He has richly entitled Himself to praise, or to have His name well spoken of. And again speaking of it, he says, — that when the Lord parted the bread and the cup among His disciples, He simply "gave thanks" (1 Cor. 11: 24). It may be accompanied with confession of sin, because it implies our utter death in trespasses and sins; — and therefore the confession of that would not be discordant with it. But still we do not find such confession either enjoined or observed in any of the passages which refer to the supper; but in them it takes the form of a simple eucharistic feast, or a season of thanksgiving for the remission of sin.

It says, as another has once observed, (at least the table has in it this voice) "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of heavy hearts: let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more" (Prov. 31: 6, 7).

This is so indeed, — it is this precious "strong drink" which reminds us that our "misery" is gone, and that our "heavy hearts" have been lifted up: it tells us, not like the blood of bulls and of goats; that sin is remembered, but that sin is remitted; — this is its peculiar characteristic voice. To give thanks in company with it, is harmony, — to pray about our sins is discordance.

But the service of self-judging, or self-condemnation, may well wait on this feast, because we are, by the remission of our sins, called unto holiness; — just as of old, the feast of unleavened bread accompanied the passover, — the Israelites celebrated their redemption from Egypt, — but they also searched the house for leaven, that they might put away all that offended Him who had redeemed them; this was most fitting, and indeed without this the Lord's passover was not kept.

And so with us, if we are not walking in a self-judging spirit, we are not behaving ourselves as the blood redeemed people, we do not discern the Lord's body, — in other words, I believe we do not keep the feast of the Lord aright, if we are honestly and holily searching for, and removing all that would offend the Lord (1 Cor. 10, 11).

This is in as full harmony with the table, as thanksgiving. And the leaven should be put away both from the congregation (1 Cor. 10), and from our own person (1 Cor. 11); for the supper shows forth the Lord's death: and the death of Jesus has this twofold sense, — it publishes remission of sin, and also God's hatred of sin; — it releases the sinner, but condemns the sin; — and the supper eaten, both with thanksgiving, and in the spirit of self-judging, will be accordant with this; eaten with prayer about our sins will be utterly discordant. It is to be a passover in union with the feast of unleavened bread, and therefore there is to be the expression of conscious rescue from Egypt, the place of death, or scene of judgment, — and this is thanksgiving: and there is to be also the expression of our renouncing of that which brought in death, — and this is self-judgment. Such, I believe to be the simple character which the Scriptures put on the Supper of the Lord. Many, indeed, and various have been the additions which human religiousness has attached to it, but the word of God preserves them.

There is no warrant for the thought of consecrating the elements, or of separating them, by some process, to the service of the Lord's table; — the bread and the wine are laid on the table as bread and wine; broken and poured out to figure the body and blood of Jesus, broken and shed for us; but no form or process is needed to give them title to lie on the table for this use.

Neither, do I judge, have we warrant for asking God to bless us in the observance of this service; simply because it is rather our worship, or setting forth of His praise, than a waiting on Him for some benefit to ourselves, either in soul or body. We bless Him in this act, rather than expect Him to bless us. We speak good of His name in it, by setting out the memorials of what He has done: — and do not supplicate Him to bless us.

I believe that if the Word were very simply attended to in this matter, this beautiful service would be relieved of much which now encumbers it, and the table would give forth no uncertain sound.

Thus. 1st, Supplication about sin would be silenced as utterly discordant with the voice of the table; 2nd, Confession of sin might be made, but no necessity for it would be felt by the worshipping; 3rd, Consecration of elements would be altogether refused; 4th, Seeking for blessing would not be thought of.

These things would be laid aside, and the service would be an act of worship, or giving the Lord the honour due to His name in this age, till He comes again, when He is to gather fresh honour from the lips and praises of His countless ransomed ones.

And it is this service, or worship, that ought to gather us to His house every first or resurrection day; other things may then be given to us of the Lord, such as the word of exhortation, or of teaching, or the voice and spirit of supplication; but we should go there to give the Lord His praise, such as the table (which publishes through the riches of His grace the remission of our sins) does give Him. This is entering His house duly, entering it with praise, because He has already blessed us, and not with supplication for a blessing; — entering it in the spirit of conscious victory over our enemies, tearing asunder all bonds, and silencing every tongue that would charge or condemn us.

It would be entering His house in a way worthy of that house, where mercy has rejoiced against judgment; where — the sword of the destroying angel has gloriously been stayed, where therefore the spirit of the worshipper sings as he enters, — "In the time of trouble He shall hide me, He shall set me on a rock, and now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy, I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord" (Ps. 27: 5, 6).

May His courts be thus entered in spirit now, for the bread and the cup are there, and the veil is gone. The memorials of the ransom have displaced those of sin, and at this alter it is only "the sacrifices of praise" we offer.

The Manner of the Love of Jesus

The Manner of the Love of Jesus.

Matt. 9; Mark 2; Luke 5.

J. G. Bellett.

from Musings on Scripture, Vol. 1.

God was showing His rich and various mercy in the old times; but this was done after a peculiar manner. He forgave sin, He healed disease, He fed His people. But all this was done after a peculiar manner. There was a certain distance and reserve, as it were, a remaining still in His own sanctuary — still in the heavens, though He was thus gracious. He met the need of a sinner; but He was in the temple, withdrawn to the holiest place, and the sinner had to come through a consecrated path to get the virtue of the mercy-seat. He met the need of His camp in the desert; but it was by remaining still in heaven, and sending from thence the angels' food, the mighty's meat, and giving them water, after His mystic rod had opened the rock. He met the disease of a poor leper; but it was after such a leper had been separated outside the camp, every eye and hand — all interference and inspection of man — withdrawn and removed. There He was God, acting in His own due love and power; but there was a style in the action that bespoke distance from the object of His love and goodness. Whether He pardoned, fed, or healed, this manner was preserved.

The Lord Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, is seen doing the same works of divine love and power. He pardons, feeds, and heals; and He does so in full assertion of His divine right or glory, thinking it no robbery to be equal with God. But there is altogether another style in those same actions when in His hand. The reserve, the distance, is gone. It is God we see, not withdrawn into the holiest, but abroad in the prisons, the hospitals, and the poorhouses, of this ruined world. He pardons; but He stands beside the sinner to do this, saying, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or Neither do I condemn thee. He feeds; but He is at the very table with the fed. He heals; but He puts forth His hands in the crowd on as many as were diseased, or stands at their sick beds. He thus comes down to the needy ones — with pardon, food, and healing. He goes among them, letting them know and see that He is supplied with various virtue to be used by them without reserve. And there is in this a glory that excelleth; so that the former has no glory by reason of it.

How should we bless Him for this display of Himself! It is the same God of love and power in both; but He has increased in the brightness of His manifestations.

The religious rulers found this way of Jesus to interfere with them. Their interest was to keep God and the people separate; for then they had hopes of being used themselves. Thus they were angry when the Lord said to the man, Thy sins be forgiven thee. It was a great interference with them. It trespassed on their places. "Who can forgive sins but God only?" — and God was in heaven. The Son of man forgiving sins on earth was a sad disturbance of that by which they lived in credit and plenty in the world. But whether they received it or not, this was the way of the Son on earth. He dwelt with our necessities in such wise as encouraged the happy, near, and confident approach of all needy ones to Him. He did all to show that He was a cheerful giver — nay more — that He gave Himself with His gift. For with His own hand, we have seen, He brought the blessing home to every man's door.

It was therefore only the happy confidence of faith which fully met and refreshed His spirit — that faith which knew the title of a needy one to come right up to Him, the faith of a Bartimaeus which was not to be silenced by the mistaken scrupulousness even of disciples. And little children are to be in His arms, though the same mistake would forbid them.

This was His mind: He came into the world to be used by sick and needy sinners; and the faith that understood and used Him accordingly was its due answer. Such answers we see recorded by the Evangelists here in the action of the faithful little band, who, breaking up the roof, let down the bed whereon the sick of the palsy lay "into the midst before Jesus." There was no ceremoniousness in this, nothing of the ancient reserve of the temple, no waiting for introduction. This little company felt their necessity, knew the virtues of the Son of God, and believed that these suited each other — nay, that the Lord carried the one, because necessitous sinners were bearing the other. It was a strong expression of faith, and I believe the strength of it was according to the mind of Jesus; so that, on seeing their faith, as we read, without further to do or more words, His heart and the grace that it carried uttered itself in an expression as full and strong: "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."

Here was sympathy. Jesus was rending all veils between God and sinners; and so was the faith of this happy little company. His blood was soon to rend from top to bottom the veil of the temple, which kept God from poor sinners; and now their faith was rending that which kept them from Jesus. This surely was meeting and entertaining the Son of God in character; and His spirit deeply owns it: "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."

Happy faith which can thus break down partition walls! O this faith which takes knowledge of Jesus, the Saviour of the world, as the mighty render of all veils "Join thou, my soul, for thou canst tell" etc. In the lively happy impression of this truth through the Spirit the soul tastes something of heaven. What blessedness to know that this is the way of God our Saviour! Grace and glory are both brought to us: we have not to ascend to heaven to seek them there, nor descend to the depths to search after them there. "Behold I come: and my reward is with me," will Jesus say when He brings the glory; as we have already seen Him with His grace standing at the door, or by the bedside, or in the crowd of needy sinners.

This is of God indeed. It is only divine love that can account for it. But the rulers did not like it. Their interest and credit in the world would keep the forgiveness of sins still in the hand of Him who was in heaven; for then, as the consecrated path, they hoped and judged that they themselves would still be used.

And so it is to this day. Forgiveness is brought near and sure to the soul — the word of faith to the heart and to the mouth. This shortens the path; but it does not suit those who transact (as themselves and others judge) the interests of the soul.

Nothing appears more simple than all this on the principles of nature. The Pharisees, in the Lord's time, represented it. They were the religious rulers; and the more God was kept in the distance, reserve being thus maintained between Him and the people, the more they were likely to be venerated, used, and enriched. Jesus, God in flesh, the Son of man forgiving sins on the earth, was a sad trespasser on their place and plan of action. How, alas! is this principle still alive, still dominant, and the "people love to have it so;" it suits the religiousness of man's nature too well to be lightly refused. The simplicity that is in Christ is sadly thus "corrupted;" and our souls, beloved, should be grieved, deeply grieved, because of it.

But we may  also say that much occasion, in our day, has been given for this principle to live and act as vigorously as it seems to be doing. For there has not been the meeting of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, this pardoning, feeding, healing, love and power of Him who has come down to walk amid our ruins, in the spirit which alone was due to it. There has been the assertion of grace, and the denial that God in this dispensation is to be sought for as at a distance, under the hiding of ceremonies or within the cloisters of temples. There has been the producing of the blessed Saviour, and giving Him to walk abroad among our necessities according to the place He has Himself taken in the Gospels. There has been the presenting of the marvellous condescending grace of the dispensation; but those who have asserted it have not carried themselves towards it, and in the presence of it, with that reverence, that holiness of confidence, which alone became them. And this has given man's religiousness (which would keep God still in heaven) occasion to revive, and be listened to, and learnt again.

But is this religiousness the due corrective of abused grace? Is this the divine remedy? — is this God's way of rectifying evil? — or is it not simple human reaction? Many are doing what they can to Withdraw the Lord to that place which He has most advisedly and for ever abandoned. They are making Him appear to build again the things which He had destroyed. They are putting Him back into the holiest place, there to be sought unto by the old aisles and vistas of the "worldly sanctuary" — to cover Him with veils and cast up the long consecrated path by which of old the sinner came to Him. It were well to be righteously angry at Jesus and His grace being treated with so indelicate and untender a hand; but these correct the error by a worse. While they would protect the holiness of Christ, they obscure His grace. They are seeking to do a service for Him that grieves Him the most deeply. They are teaching man that He is an austere Master; they withdraw Him to the place where it is felt to be a fearful thing to plant one's foot.

Indeed this is a service He did not ask for. "Who hath required this at your hands," is, I am assured in my soul, the voice of the Son of God to those who withdraw Him from the nearest and most assured approach of the poor sinner. They have been doing. what they could to change HIS place and attitudes, instead of MAN'S. Correction was needed surely. It is ever needed. Man will be spoiling or abusing everything. There has been an intellectual arrogance and carnal freedom with Christ and His truth, which may well have grieved the righteous. But it was man that ought to have been challenged to change his place and bearing, and not the Lord. He has not repented of having come on earth to forgive sins, of having visited the poor Samaritan at the well or Levi or Zacchaeus in their houses, or Peter's wife's mother on her bed of sickness. He is still the same Lord, and He purposes to be so. He has not retired Within the veil again, nor bound up that which was rent from top to bottom. He has not built again that which He had destroyed. It is not a worldly sanctuary that He fills and furnishes again, nor ceremonies and observances, and rites and practices, under which He is again concealing Himself. He has descended from heaven to earth; He is abroad among men, in the ministry of His precious gospel and by His Spirit, beseeching sinners to be reconciled.

What then alas! is the character of that effort that would force Him back to the thick darkness? (2 Chr. 6: 43). It is an attempt made in the strength and with the subtlety of the devil upon the Son of God, as of old. It is a taking Him, as it were, to the pinnacle of the temple, to some withdrawn and proud elevation, where the multitude may gaze at Him. But His purpose is, blessed be His name, to stand in the midst of them, that they may use Him.

We should change our place; that is equally true. We should learn to pass and repass with the unshod foot before this gracious, blessed, Son of man. It is for us to change our attitude, and not to seek to make Him change His.

We have still to see Him in all the grace of this dispensation; we have to read "the gospel of the blessed God" (1 Tim. 1), as they read it of old who knew and felt that the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins. But we have to read all this more in their spirit also. We are to wonder at the strange sight, as they did — to tell Jesus, with the centurion, that we are not worthy that He should come under our roof, while we still use His immediate presence and grace — to stand before Him like Zacchaeus, and call Him "Lord," though, like Him, receiving Him to our house; and to follow Him in the way with adoring thankful gaze, though having refused, as Bartimaeus, to be put at a distance by the vain religious scruples of even His own disciples.

Ah! this is what should have been done. This would have been the divine corrective of the mischief that has come in. But this was not so easy; for this would have been spiritual: the thing that has been done is carnal. Elements of the world are revived and multiplied. Jesus has been forced back at a distance from the sinner. He has been put into "the thick darkness," under cover of fleshly observances and rites, and at the end of a long path through the aisles of a sanctuary, where He waits to receive the homage of a fearing and bondaged people. This is the place and attitude which many teachers (who are daily rising in the esteem of the people) make the blessed Saviour to fill and take.

The Lord Jesus is kept at a distance; religious observances are brought near; and the people (for they have ever been so minded) like the feelings that come from all that which is acted before them. Their eye and ear are engaged, a certain sacred sense of God is awakened; but the precious immediate confidence of the heart and conscience is refused. Ah! shall any one who loves the Lord thus sink down again into man, when the Spirit would have him up with Christ?

"O foolish Galatians; who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? . . . Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? . . . Ye observe days, and mouths, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." (Gal. 3, 4)

Thus speaks the aggrieved Spirit in the apostle over those who once had been eminently his joy but were now his sorrow, because they were turning again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto they were desiring again to be in bondage. Indeed they were deserting faith for religiousness, "the simplicity that is in Christ" and in which the "virgin" or "uncorrupted" mind ever walks, for the ceremonies and observances of "a worldly sanctuary."

But religiousness is neither faith nor righteousness. With the Pharisees it was adopted as a relief for a had conscience, or a cover for evil; in them it was, therefore, opposed to faith. The Galatians cannot properly be said to have been Pharisees, it is true; but the Spirit of God had a serious question with both.

And I may just further observe, that in our passages (Matt. 9: 6; Mark 2: 2; Luke 5: 24) the Lord seeks to lead man away from His own reasonings and calculations to Himself and His works. He perceived that the Scribes were "reasoning among themselves," and then proposed to them what He was doing — "that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins (He said unto the sick of the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise and take up thy couch, and go into thine house."

How simple, how precious! And on this hangs the grand distinction between faith and religiousness of which I have just been speaking. Religiousness, or man's religion, gives the soul many a serious thought about itself, and many a devout thought about God. But faith, or God's religion, gives the soul Jesus, and the works and words of Jesus.

And yet it is faith, and faith only, secures the end which is valued of God. Faith "worketh by love"; faith "overcometh the world;" faith "purifies the heart." By faith "the elders obtained a good report." Religiousness does not this. It ever "works" by fear, not by love. It does not "overcome the world," but oftentimes takes it within to some recess or hiding-place. It does not "purify the heart" by giving it an object to detach it from self, but keeps self in a religious attire ever before it, and leaves the conscience unpurged. And in God's record it gets no "good report." From the beginning to the end of that record, it is the people of religion, the devout observers of carnal ceremonies, those who would not "defile themselves" with a judgment-hall, that have stood most cruel in the resistance of the truth. But it is the men of faith, the lovers of the truth, the poor broken-hearted believers who have found their relief in Jesus "forgiving sins," who have stood and laboured and conquered; and they have their happy memorial with Him and in the records of Him whom they trusted, in whom by faith they found eternal life and their sure and full salvation.

Man

Man.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

The incorrigibleness of man under all persuasions becomes the ground of the necessity, and the vindication of the righteousness, of God's judgment.

Isaiah says, "Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more." And Jeremiah had to say of the generation in his day, "Thou has stricken them, but they have not grieved;" and again, "I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?" Are we then to wonder that the sword of the Chaldean entered the land?

The generation in the day of Christ was tested in every way. John mourned, the Son of man piped; but there was neither lamentation nor dancing. In His own person, the Lord assayed Israel in every way, according to their own prophets. He came as the Bethlehemite, according to Micah, but they sought His life. (Matt. 2) He came as the light from the land of Zebulon and Naphthali, according to Isaiah; but He was challenged instead of followed. (Matt. 4) He came as the King, meek and lowly, according to Zechariah, but they received Him not. (Matt. 21)

Then in the three parables, which the Lord delivers at the close of these testings of Israel (see Matt. 21, 22), I mean those of the two sons, the husbandman of the vineyard, and the marriage of the king's son, He convicts His people under the law, under the ministry of John Baptist, and under grace.

Are we not, therefore, prepared to see the Master rise up to shut to the door? The need of sovereign grace, as well as the vindication of judgment, is made to appear. "Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma," Man is past moral correction. He is incorrigible and incurable.

It has been said of him, "Man is prone to evil, and this arises from the impotency of the will, which, when it turns to evil, is rather passive than active. Through the grace of Christ alone is it free." Very just, Not only has man fallen from God, and become a sinner, but he is the bondman of sin. Having been overcome of Satan, he has been brought into bondage to him. (2 Peter 2) He is "sold under sin." (Rom. 7)

And this state of incurableness and incorrigibleness has had a constant illustration in the book of God, from the beginning to the end. Man has shown himself to be in full bondage to sin, so that he will go in the way of it, in defiance of every argument and every influence which may be used with him.

It is solemn to look at this; but it has its profit for us to do so. We can be at no difficulty to trace a line of these illustrations all through Scripture.

Cain went on with the desperate purpose of his heart, though the Lord came and personally pleaded with him, to turn him from his purpose. (Gen. 4)

Nimrod made Babel the centre of his empire, though God's judgment had just before so awfully signalized that place. (Gen. 10)

Pharaoh repented not to yield himself under God's hand, though that hand had given witness after witness of its supremacy, and that it was vain to kick against the pricks. (Ex. 1 - 14)

Amalek fought with Israel, though the glory in the pillar and the water from the rock were before him, the witnesses of God's wondrous majesty and power. (Ex. 17)

Israel murmured and rebelled again and again, in the midst of divine marvels and mercies, which spoke to them of love and almightiness. (Numbers.)

Nebuchadnezzar exalted himself after so many witnesses of God's power and so many gracious, softened movements of his own heart. (Dan. 4: 30.)

Judas betrayed the Lord after years of converse with him. (Matt. 26)

The High Priest invented a lie, in the face of a rent veil; the Roman soldiers consented to that lie, in the face of a rent tomb. (Matt. 28)

The Jews stoned Stephen, though his face was shining, under their eye, like the face of an angel. (Acts 7)

These are among the samples or instances of the fact that man, by nature, is under bondage to sin, and that no moral influence is powerful enough to work his deliverance. The creature that has proved itself able to withstand such arguments and persuasives as these cases exhibit, has proved itself to be beyond the reach of all moral influence. Hell itself would not cure him or deter him. Man is incorrigible and incurable. Again, we may say with Isaiah, "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more." Sovereign grace and power must home in. If God have not a seed it will all be Sodom.

The Apocalypse, closing the Book of God, closes also this testimony against man. There, in the face of the most awful judgments, executed again and again, man refuses to repent, going on the rather to ripen his iniquity, like Pharaoh of old, upon whom plague after plague spent themselves all in vain. And thus, we may say, this book of the Apocalypse (which is eminently a book of divine judgments, judgments not on Israel only, but on the whole world) is the vindication or justification, as well as the history, of judgment. We read there of judgments; but we learn, at the same time, the necessity and demand for judgment. For the incorrigibleness of man, the desperate hardness of the heart, is fully exposed again. It is Pharaoh refusing to repent, Amalek defying and insulting the glory, or man as well as Israel saying, "Where is the God of judgment?" Man is found to be the same from first to last. The Ethiopian has not changed his skin nor the leopard his spots.

Are we then, I still ask, to wonder that the Lord's hand is still stretched out? that vials, trumpets, and seals have still to usher forth the judgments of God, and that the sword of Him who sits upon the white horse has still to do its work of death?

Judgment is God's strange work, but it is His needed work likewise. "Is there not a cause?" we may surely say, when we have looked at these cases and read the history of the trial of man's heart from the beginning to the end of it. And I am sure it is well for the soul to hold this fact, this truth about man and his incorrigibleness in remembrance; for, as I have been observing, it so justifies the thought of divine judgment, and so tells us of the necessity of sovereign grace and the interference of divine power.

Judgments are to introduce the kingdom. The earth is to be conducted into a scene of glory by the taking out of it all that offends and does iniquity. For as grace has been despised, and the Lord who made the world has been disowned and cast out of the world, judgment must clear it ere it can be the scene of His glory and joy. But "the Lord is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

Mary and Martha

Mary and Martha.

Luke 10: 10: 38-42.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 14, 1887, p. 191.

The little scene which closes this chapter is peculiar to Luke, serving his general purpose of instructing us in great principles of truth. The two sisters here introduced were differently minded; and, being brought to the trial of the mind of Christ, we get the judgment of God on matter of much value to us.

The house which we now enter was Martha's. The Spirit of God tells us this, as being characteristic of Martha; and into her house, with all readiness of heart, she receives the Lord, and prepares for Him the very best provision it had. His labours and fatigue called for this. Martha well knew that His ways abroad were the ways of the good Samaritan, who would go on foot that others might ride, and she loves Him too well not to observe and provide for His weariness. But Mary had no house for Him. She was, in spirit, a stranger like Himself; but she opens a sanctuary for Him, and seats Him there, the Lord of her humble temple. She takes her place at His feet, and hears His words. She knows, as well as Martha, that He was wearied: but she knows also that there was a fulness in Him that could afford to be more wearied still. Her ear and her heart, therefore, still use Him, instead of her hand or her foot ministering to Him. And in these things lay the difference between the sisters. Martha's eye saw His weariness, and would give to Him; Mary's faith apprehended His fulness underneath His weariness, and would draw from Him.

This brings out the mind of the Son of God. The Lord accepts the care of Martha as long as it is simple care and diligence about His present need; but the moment she brings her mind into competition with Mary's she learns His judgment, and is taught to know that Mary, by her faith, was refreshing Him with a far sweeter feast than all her care and the provision of her house could possibly have supplied. Mary's faith gave Jesus a sense of His own divine glory. It told Him, that though He was the wearied One, He could still feed and refresh her. She was at His feet, hearing His words. There was no temple there, or light of the sun; but the Son of God was there, and He was everything to her. This was the honour He prized, and blessedly indeed was she in His secret. When He was thirsty and tired at Jacob's well, He forgot it all in giving out other waters, which no pitcher could have held, or well beside His own supplied; and here Mary brings her soul to the same well, knowing that, in spite of all His weariness, it was as full as ever for her use.

And oh, dear brethren, what principles are here disclosed to us! Our God is asserting for Himself the place of supreme power and supreme goodness, and He will have us debtors to Him. Our sense of His fulness is more precious to Him than all the service we can render Him. Entitled, as He is, to more than all creation could give Him, yet above all things does He desire that we should use His love, and draw from His treasures. The honour which our confidence puts upon Him is His highest honour; for it is the divine glory to be still giving, still blessing, still pouring forth from unexhausted fulness. Under the law He had to receive from us, but in the gospel He is giving to us; and the words of the Lord Jesus are these: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." And this place He will fill for ever; for, "without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better." Praise shall, it is true, arise to Him from everything that hath breath; but forth from Himself, and from the seat of His glory, shall go the constant flow of blessing, the light to cheer, the waters to refresh, and the leaves of the tree to heal; and our God shall taste His own joy, and display His own glory, in being a Giver for ever. J. G. B.

Matthew 21, 22, 23

Matthew 21, 22, 23.

J. G. Bellett.

Section 7 of: Musings on Scripture, Volume 3

That the Lord came to deliver the house of Israel out of the hand of their enemies, and then to reign over them, appears from the promises, generally, of God to His people by the prophets. But most especially and distinctly is this the subject of that noble strain of prophecy which commences with the 7th chapter, and closes with the 7th verse of the 9th chapter of Isaiah. At the time when that prophecy was delivered, Syria and Ephraim were confederated against Judah, and Isaiah was commissioned to sustain the courage of the house of David by an assurance that the confederacy should not prevail. In token of this, the prophet's two children, as well as the promised Immanuel, are set up as signs; and the discomfiture of the then present confederacy was the pledge of the discomfiture of every confederacy that might be formed against the house and throne of David, so as to secure to it in the end (though for a long, dreary, and dark season it might lie in ruins and dishonour) rest and glory, when "the Child" should be "born" and the "Son given," Whose right it was on that throne to sit, and to "order and establish it for ever." The parable of "the wicked husbandmen," in like manner, distinctly instructs us in the same doctrine — that the mission of the Son of God, was, as to one of its purposes, to keep the Jewish nation still in the possession of the vineyard, under the care and government of Him Whose inheritance it was, and for disallowing Whose title to which, and for this only, it has been taken from them.

Thus the day of the redemption and kingdom of Israel has been delayed because of their unbelief; for they could not discern the glory of the kingdom in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Before, however, the Lord Jesus would formally pronounce upon their present loss of the kingdom, it appears to me that He would call forth, from the nation of Israel, a formal rejection of Him in the fully manifested character of their King, so that they might be left without excuse. Hence arises the scene of — His last solemn entry into their city, which was transacted, as we shall see, in the style and with the actions of the true Son of David, the rightful King of Israel. In connection with this solemn entry will be found all the scenes recorded in Matt. 21 - 23, which I distribute and interpret as follows:

THE ROYAL VISITATION. — Matt. 21: 1-14.

We learn that, in the purest days of the Jewish government, the principal men in Israel used no animals but asses (Judges 5: 10; Judges 10: 4; Judges 12: 14), horses not being introduced till the corrupt times of Solomon. The Lord, then, when assuming the style of "King of Israel," of course took every feature, however minute, which belonged to the only pure and true form of such a character, and therefore orders His disciples to bring an ass's colt to Him. And, besides, this was Messiah's exhibiting Himself as King, just as the prophet had before presented Him (Zech. 9: 9), and His being "meek and lowly" was as kingly a feature as any other. For Moses had, provided, that the king, who should hereafter be appointed to rule over Israel, should not surround himself with such circumstances and pomp as might lift up his head in pride above his brethren, and Christ, the King, would doubtless conform Himself to the model thus furnished by Moses (Deut. 17: 14).

The actions of spreading their garments and strewing branches of trees in the way were expressive of the honour in which the multitude held Him, and the joy with which they saluted Him. His garments were now, as it were, smelling of myrrh, aloes, and cassia. The people hailed Him as King (Luke 19: 38), called Him "the Son of David," and thus recognised His title to the throne of David (Mark 11: 10). The palmy multitude, as it were, was keeping the feast of Tabernacles. They took their triumphant acclamations from Psalm 118, that place of the scriptures which represents the nation of Israel bringing into His glory the Head Stone, Which had been previously rejected by the builders; so were they doing now, welcoming Messiah to His kingdom, and, as said by the prophet, "the shout of a King was among them" (Num. 23: 21). All this, it may be, they neither understood nor intended, but they were divinely moved to take the part which they did, in order that the whole scene might be the presentation of their King, in full form, to the city and nation of the Jews, in the person of Him who was just coming among them. On the Lord's entry into the city, Jerusalem was moved with wonder at the sight, saying, "Who is this?" But when they learnt that this was "Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth, of Galilee," we may presume that many began to despise the Galilean King. The Lord at once goes up to the temple, and there performs a solemn action, strikingly characteristic of "King of Israel, He purifies the house of God.

Such had been one of the functions, and was properly alone within the due exercise of the royal authority. We find the best kings of Judah reform. ing the religion of the people in their days, — witness Hezekiah and Josiah; and here, in virtue of the same kingly authority, the Lord takes upon Him the same action.

There, too, in the temple, He heals the lame and the blind, thus giving further evidence that He was exhibiting, in His person, the virtues which the prophet had pointed at as belonging to Messiah, and to Messiah in His kingdom (Isa. 35: 5, 6). Nothing then was now wanting — the decisive moment was come, and inquisition was now in making, "would they reverence the Son? "

ISRAEL'S REJECTION OF THEIR KING. — Matt. 21: 15-22.

The enmity of the principal men, who were the organs and representatives of the people, now declared itself; and they formally disallow their rightful Lord and King. They were "sore displeased" in the Son of David, and cast out the Heir of the vineyard. Thus they counted themselves unworthy of the kingdom. The Lord rebuked them by a passage taken from the with Psalm, which on this occasion was most seasonable, being calculated both to rebuke the Jews, by giving them, for the present, the place of the enemy and the avenger, and also to present Him, the rejected Messiah, in His full and proper glories before them (see Heb. 2: 8).

Having then shut them up under the rebuke and condemnation of this Psalm, the Lord "left them and went out of the city;" thus formally disclaiming it, at least for the present, as the place of His throne.

On His return, the next morning, by a very significant symbolical action He warns His disciples of the judgment which was now, in consequence of His own having thus refused to receive Him, soon to be executed on the Jewish church and nation. He performs the act of the Lord of the vineyard, described before by Isaiah, which clearly was designed to represent the judgment of the apostate Jewish system under the hand of Messiah. He then further instructs His disciples in the important truth, that the Jewish system was about to be superseded by a dispensation among them as His disciples, the characteristic energy or virtue of which, was to be faith; to which, and not to the temple, was to be committed the exercise of God's power upon earth. The mountain of the Lord's house was now to be cast into a troubled sea; the kingdom to be taken from the Jews of that day and given to a nation, the holy nation of that elect remnant of the last days, who shall have faith in Him, the rejected Stone (1 Peter 2: 6-9), bringing forth the fruits thereof.

THE CONVICTION OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL. — Matt. 21: 23 - 22.

The insolence of the chief priests and elders increasing, and their enmity being set more in work, they come forward and make their first challenge of the Lord. They call upon Him to produce His credentials, — "By what authority," say they, "doest Thou these things?" In reply, He puts it upon them to decide as to the authority of John's baptism, whether it was "from heaven or of men." This He did, not so much with the design of hazarding their safety with the multitude, as their evil he" suggested, but of leading them, in God's own appointed way, to the answer of their own inquiry; for as they ought to have felt no hesitation in deciding John's baptism to have been "from heaven," this would have at once shown by what authority. He was acting; for John's ministry was God's testimony to Him, the Christ. And then, in order to show them that they should have no hesitation in deciding that John's baptism was from heaven, He constructs the parable of "The two sons," the purpose of which most plainly was to show them on their own principles of righteousness, which John practised and taught, that it had been "from heaven," and thus to convict them of sin in rejecting this counsel of God against themselves.

In the parable of "The wicked husbandmen," the Lord after this presents to them a view of their transgressions as a nation, the full measure of which they were now awfully filling up, and, according to a similar parable in their prophet, He leads these "inhabitants of Jerusalem," these "men of Judah," to judge themselves in the controversy between Him the Householder, and His vineyard. He then confirms the fact of their being ripe for judgment, by citing two passages, one from Psalm 118 and another from Isaiah 8, which together showed them that they had rejected Him, the sure foundation Stone, and must therefore suffer the judgment written. The enmity of the Pharisees was now worked up to a still greater heat, and they were only hindered by their fears of the multitude from seizing on Him, and killing this blessed Heir of the vineyard.

The Lord then delivers the parable of "The marriage of the King's Son," which, in drawing out the character and history of the kingdom of heaven, pointedly and advisably (as did the former parable) exhibits the refusal of the Jews, though bidden again and again, to enter into that kingdom, and also their awful destruction which followed thereon.

The Pharisees now took solemn counsel, and laid their plans for ensnaring the Lord. Finding as they had just done, that because of the multitude they had no hope of getting Him into their power simply as a Jew, they seek occasion against Him as a subject of Caesar in order to deliver Him over into the power and authority of the Romans. Thus minded, they formally enter upon their second challenge of the blessed Jesus. They send a few of their disciples with certain Herodians, a political sect of Jews that were slaves to the Roman interests, who insidiously asked Him, "Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not?" The Lord, knowing their hypocrisy, so prepared His reply as not only to prove that "before the king innocency should be found in Him," but also to show them, that they were now slaves to Caesar, a heathen oppressor, only because they had not rendered due service to God, their only rightful and gracious King. Thus He designed again to convict their consciences, and prove to them, as a nation or political body, that they were now lost, that there was no life in them, and that they were ready to be dissolved. The arrow appears to be sharp in the hearts of the King's enemies, for "they marvelled, and left Him, and went their way."

The nation being thus judged, religion advances to the controversy. It was at this time distracted between the two principal sects of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the former having departed from the truth in the way of formalism, the latter in the way of infidelity. Representatives of each of these parties now present themselves successively before the Lord, with separate enquiries suitable to their respective errors, and these thus constitute the third and fourth challenge by this deeply revolted nation, of Him who was their rightful King, and Whom they should have rather reverenced and received as the heir of all their nation's glory. The Sadducees hoped to disprove certain divine doctrines by insinuating their apparent absurdity. The Pharisees designed to magnify the law, of which they were the teachers. The former He convicts by showing them their ignorance of the word which they were blaspheming; the latter, by evincing the end of the law, and thus intimating, that while they were desiring to be teachers of it, they understood neither what they said nor whereof they affirmed.

He then, at the end, having answered all these challenges, makes one enquiry of them touching the person of Messiah. But they had no word of wisdom or of knowledge among them: night was upon the prophets; and thus, as a religious or ecclesiastical body, they were found to have become apostate from the truth, and no light to be remaining in them.

Thus then, as a nation and a religion, they were adjudged to be as reprobate silver.

THE SENTENCE OF JUDGMENT. — Matt. 23.

The pleadings were now closed — the Jews convicted and silenced — there was no counsellor among them, who, when asked, could answer a word: as a religion and a nation, they stood condemned. The Lord then, as in the place of judgment, proceeds to array the matters which were in evidence against them, and to pronounce the solemn sentence.

He takes occasion, however by the way, to instruct both His disciples, and those of the multitude who still apparently heard Him gladly in their respective duties in this state of apostacy. He then pronounces the religion and nation to be guilty of oppression and pride — of having awfully corrupted the truth of God — of having substituted religiousness for righteousness — of deep hypocrisy — of pretending veneration for the prophets of old, and yet doing the deeds of those who persecuted and killed them. He next warns them that they were soon to fill up the measure of their sins, and that, the long-suffering of their much offended God having been continued through the appointed day of grace, they should answer to Him, and the penalty of all the righteous blood which had been shed on the earth be required of this generation.

The Lord closes this sentence with a lamentation over His long and well beloved Jerusalem. He remembered how He had at first chosen it for His rest, and would so often have repaired it with goodly pleasant stones; but He now sees it as lost to Him, and soon to be laid even with the ground, because she had not known this the time of her visitation! The holy and beautiful house, where the fathers had praised Him, was to be left unto their apostate children desolate; nor should the people again see Him thus among them — thus again offering Himself as their King, until by repentance and faith they learn to join with His disciples in calling Him "Blessed." Then will they take up the words which the prophet has prepared for that glorious and triumphant day, that day of all days for Israel, when the Head Stone is to be brought in with shoutings of the restored and obedient people. See Ps. 118.

Here the Lord's public ministry ended. He now went out and departed from the temple (Matt. 24: 1), nor did He return to the city, save in the character of a Lamb prepared for the slaughter.

Matthew 24, 25

Matthew 24, 25.

J. G. Bellett.

from  Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

Our Lord had withdrawn from Jerusalem, and is followed to the Mount of Olives by His disciples, where this discourse takes place. They began the conversation by asking Him certain questions, which admitted the truth of a sentence He had just pronounced on the stones of the temple, though they themselves the moment before had been vainly admiring those stones.

It is interesting to see this. They looked on the temple now as a doomed and not a dedicated spot, and they desire to know when this doom should be accomplished, and what should signify to them the end of the world, and His return.

There was, therefore, in their minds a very simple faith. They admitted His truth, and their inquiries arose from thence. An end and a change were now looked for, because He had pronounced judgment on the present existing things of Israel. Still, however, there was a vast distance between the state of His mind at this moment and theirs. His was full of divine truth. He knew all the results of this needed end and change, and of Israel's present judgment. But we are to be calm, and stay our minds on this: How far had the time come for unfolding to them all these results, in the full knowledge of which He was?

Now, we, too, are in the knowledge of these results in our way and measure; for the Spirit of truth has been given, and we know the things of the Father and of Christ, and heavenly mysteries consequent on Israel's rejection, as Jesus then did. But we are to remember that the Lord was in converse then with those unto whom He says, on another (and I believe a deeper) occasion than the present: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now."

I must hold myself, therefore, in the remembrance that the parties in this discourse were thus widely different as to their then attainments, and in remembrance also of what their subject was.

I judge, then, that Matt. 24: 4-11 forms one part of this discourse. I am sure that the Lord looked on His disciples as Christians, or believers in Him. And I am free to admit that these verses may be read as a general account of things in Christendom as we speak, or of things that were to be known and experienced in that portion of the world that was thereafter to adopt the name of Christian, and that, therefore, we have in them the general external history of our dispensation. But I believe, in a special sense, these verses will find their accomplishment when Israel becomes again the scene of divine notice, or in that part of the reserved week of Daniel which is to precede the abominable desolator in the holy place, which is the action of Antichrist in Jerusalem by and bye.*

*I see those signs, as I judge, in the first five seals in Rev. 6, and I suppose they will there be understood is belonging to actions in days not yet come.

Then verses 15-28 give us another period, a period following the exaltation of the great apostate in Jerusalem, and preceding the appearing of the Son of man. But here the disciples are addressed as being only in that devoted land and city, and they are commanded to leave them for the mountains, and not be seduced therefrom by any promises that Christ and deliverance had come either in the open desert or in the secret chamber.

Verses 29-31 constitute another portion, giving us the appearing of Christ with its precursors and results.

Then verses 32-35 impress on the souls of the disciples the duty of watching the things or signs now given, assuring them that none can possibly fail.

Verses 36-44 tell them the moral state of things immediately on the appearing of the Son of man, and of the discerning or separating power of that day, and enforces watchfulness upon them.

I pause here for the present. For the remainder may, without injury to what we have now gone through, be postponed.

I ask, then, how far does the Lord in this great discourse contemplate the heavenly destiny of the saints, and the fact and the time of their rapture?

It is judged that He gives two distinct notices of this mystery of the rapture of the saints into the air, in verse 31 and in verse 40. I desire grace to consider these verses, therefore, and to love the truth of God, or the mind of Christ, above all my own thoughts.

In the first place, then, let us consider verse 31.

In verse 22, I find "the elect" spoken of, and spoken of as part of "all flesh." and of the divine purpose of saving them as flesh, or in the flesh.

Now, I confess this is the strongest intimation to me, that the Lord was not contemplating his heavenly, but his earthly people. When by his Spirit, in the apostles afterwards, he comes to speak of his heavenly ones, he distinctly tells us that the saving of the flesh was, and could be, of no account; for that flesh and blood could never inherit the heavens. Saved flesh must be for the inheritance of the earth. The elect of this verse are, I surely conclude, the Lord's earthly remnant.

The elect are again spoken of in verse 24. And there they are presented as being preserved from the deceits of false Christs. I do not say that such words respecting them would necessarily determine them to be an earthly people. No. I believe, from Rev. 13, there will be many heavenly men exposed to deceits in that day, and in like manner preserved from being deceived. But having already established "the elect" of this chapter to be earthly, it is natural to continue in the one thought about them. And beside, the character of deceit here, signs and wonders connected with the assertion of Christ being in the desert and in the chambers, seems to address itself more plausibly, if not exclusively, to a remnant preparing for the earthly places.

Well then, "the elect" are again found in verse 31. They are spoken of, and not to, in the three places, and precisely under the same words, touv" ejklektou;". Is there, then, any reason to see another people here? My clear present assurance is, that there is none.

I believe the blessed Lord is here graciously Closing the history of those whom He had before been looking at. He looked at them, in verse 22, as the dear objects of His care, when perhaps they knew Him not, as in the counsels of His electing love; in verse 21, He looked at them as preserved by His truth and Spirit in the midst of deceit and corruption; in verse 31, He takes a last look at them, gathered into the kingdom, or to their loved Zion, from all places of their dispersion.

There is a natural unforced character in this interpretation of "the elect" of this chapter, which, I feel, commends it. But it has more to rest on than that.

In verses 29, 30, the Lord had passed rapidly through the scene of judgments or the return of the Son of man. Its precursors — the darkening, and falling, and shaking of the powers and ordinances of heaven, and the mourning of the tribes of the earth. Its execution — the well-known figure of "coming in the clouds." (Matt. 26: 64, Rev. 1: 7.) And now its results — the gathering of the elect, His mind stretching out to that feature of these results, for the comfort of those whom, in their trials and in other parts of their history, as we saw, He had been previously looking at.

But beside, a "great trumpet" had been foretold by the prophet, as the instrument of gathering the scattered election home to the land (Isa. 27: 12, 13, Sept.) and, to a great extent, the very language of the Lord here seems taken from that of the prophet Zechariah. (See Zech. 2: 6; Sept.) And as Moses and the prophets had spoken of the dispersion of Israel for their sins in all parts of the earth, or to the four winds, it is natural that Jesus should speak of their restoration in the same or commensurate terms. (Deut. 28: 64. Isa. 11: 12. Ezek. 17: 21.) And further, the Lord had often desired their gathering, as He tells us (see Matt. 23: 37), and now He anticipates that gathering with assurance.

Besides, there is not a thought of resurrection here; and we know that those that are alive of the heavenly family shall not come without those that sleep. And their coming will not be the fruit of any "mission" ("he shall send his angels"), but in a moment, being changed or raised, they ascend on the Lord reaching the air from heaven with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. And I do not believe the mention of "angels" interferes with this, because of the extended use, not only of those creatures or servants themselves in the accomplishing of divine purposes, but in the extended use of the term in a figurative or secondary sense. And angels (Isa. 18: 2) are expressly used in relation to the gathering of Israel.

Well, then, I surely believe that it is far more easy and natural, and according to all scriptural analogy, to interpret this verse of the same elect ones as had been spoken of in verse 22. I do not force this conclusion on another. No. In this department of truth there are many things hard to be understood, and we should have at this day among us, I am thoroughly assured, the materials and the spirit of purer and more heavenly communion, had we been more modest and less urgent on those "doubtful disputations." I can quite believe that the perfect wisdom of the Spirit has judged it well to leave a certain indistinctness upon those distant details, valuing as He surely and blessedly does, something far more than our mere agreement in opinion upon them. O that the Lord may shed among us the spirit of a more intimate and personal communion with Himself and each other! But in its place and measure, I am ready to welcome knowledge of these things and inquiry into them, and, therefore, go on to look at verse 40.

The taking and the leaving, whatever precise or prophetic sense may belong to these words or acts, morally convey the great and serious truth, that this day, the day of the Son of man, will be a discerning day, a day of separation between the righteous and the evil. And the chief value, the great moral power, of the teaching lies in that, and in that we are, of course, agreed.

But I do further believe, that supposing the "taking" refer to the righteous, it is the righteous ones who, like Noah and Lot, are secured only for the earthly places. Noah entered the ark, and Lot was borne away from Sodom, I grant, ere the judgments came. They were taken and the rest left for destruction. But they were earthly ones. I think, however, beyond this, that the passage affords evidence that the "taking" intimates judgment and not security, and the leaving" intimates outliving and not destruction. Luke has the word "escape" and "stand," (Luke 21: 36), and that simply and naturally conveys to me that those who are left are a people that have escaped the operation of this terrible day, and still stand as in their place, unmoved before the Son of man. And the figures employed intimate strongly that the taking is a judicial or hostile act. The figure of an eagle coming upon a carcase — the figure of a thief coming into a house — the figure of a snare catching a man — the type of the flood coming to bear away the old world: all these intimate to me strongly that our blessed Master had judgment rather than security in His mind when He spoke of "taking."

One objection is made to this, which appears strong, that the verb is changed; that in verse 39 it is aijrw and in verse 40 paralambavnw. But I find the very same thing in John 19: 15, 16. There the Jews call on Pilate to take away Jesus — aijrw — but the moment he allows them to do their Pleasure, and act towards Him just as they Wished, they parevlabon Jesus. This is surely at the very least enough to check confidence on this point.

My own conviction is this, though I am no critical scholar at all, that the quality of the act, signified by the verb paralambavnw, is to be determined simply by the quality of the agent. It means (does it not?) assuming or taking to one's self. When the Lord Jesus descends to receive His saints to Himself (paralambavnw, John 14: 3), that taking or receiving is surely unto joy and glory; but when the judicial Son of man comes to take, it is, I believe, to carry off in vengeance.

These are my thoughts on the force of this verse. I am ready to say, as I did upon verse 31, I press nothing. I admit that some indistinctness may advisedly be left on this subject, for it is morally healthful for our souls, both to be in daily desire and expectation of Jesus, and yet armed with the daily mind of those who are ready to suffer death at the hand of any enemy of His name. My grief is, that saints are sedulously schooled or tortured into conclusions, that necessity is laid on them to make up their minds on these things, and that that zeal which works division is put forth in the service of peculiar opinions. "In many things we offend all."

I paused at verse 44, for I judge that from verse 45 to 25: 30 we have only beautiful and striking illustrations of the great moral principles which had been previously enforced, such as watching, because ignorant of the time.

In verses 31-46, however, the Lord appears to me to resume the scene. In Matt. 24: 31, He had spoken of a "gathering," having brought down His teaching to the gathering or assembling of the scattered Israel. Now He resumes the scene, and exhibits the gathering of the Gentiles, or settling the nations in the kingdom. I believe there is no resurrection here, as there had been none in 24: 31. I believe it is impossible to say that the goats or the reprobate will rise into the air to meet the descending Lord, and there be judged. I believe it is impossible to say that the throne of the King, before which a mixed multitude are to be brought at one and the same time, can be till the Lord have actually returned and been seated on the earth again. The judgment between. "cattle and cattle" is on earth. (Ezek. 34) There was much in this to sustain the disciples, His believing people, to whom the Lord was speaking. There was sure promise of His return with His rewards as the Master, and with Himself as the Bridegroom. But I do not find, in the whole of this discourse, that which necessarily instructed them in heavenly glories, or necessarily intimated their rapture into the heavens. In John, as they are retiring from the supper, He speaks still more fully, and plainly tells them of mansions in heavenly places. But there He originated the discourse, and in spirit was in heaven; here they originate the discourse, and in spirit, in thought, in intelligence and associations, were on earth.

If the mind hold these or any other thoughts of God and His counsels before. it, may the spirit within ponder them, and turn them to godly exercise of heart and conscience! May they not float before the mind's eye, beloved, as ideas or images, but dwell within the seeing and hearing of the soul with power! Amen.

Thoughts on Matthew 24, 25

Thoughts on Matthew 24, 25.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 10 p. 292.

I shall take you a little back with me in this Gospel, in order that we may get more of its beautiful spirit to Matthew 22. That chapter, at verse 15, presents to us the last great controversy between Christ and the Jews. The characteristic of the Gospel of Matthew is the controversy between the mind of Christ and Jewish unbelief; and in this we see the last instance of it. We find Him in this chapter assailed by the Herodians, Pharisees, and Sadducees.

How does He answer the question put to Him by the first of these opponents, tempting Him in a way by means of which He at once escapes from the snare laid for Him and gives them a moral lesson? He shows them a penny, points to the image stamped upon it, and tells them to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's; and thus, by this simple but expressive action, He not only defeats their intentions but delivers a great principle to their consciences. They had put themselves into the power of Caesar; they had brought upon themselves his right to be paid tribute. It was then their duty quietly to pay that tribute. The perfect mind of Christ would not be content with merely delivering itself from the Herodians' snare, but it also led Him to propound to them a deep element of profound truth, and not only to them but to us also. The first great action of divine truth upon our souls is the teaching us that our first duty is to bow our heads to the punishment which our sins have incurred. We must take our proper place — that place is the place of sinners. We are addressed as sinners in God's word. The first action of faith in the gospel is that we take our place outside the city, and cry, unclean, unclean.

Our Lord is now assailed by another — the Sadducean form of unbelief. Let us see now the beautiful simplicity of the wisdom of the mind of Christ. He brings them back to the burning bush and the voice of God that spoke from it, telling them that "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Our natural conscience tells us that He is the God of the living. You have more than the intimation of scripture for that truth, or you do not know it in its power. If you have thoughts of God, you will be able to answer yourself the inquiries of your mind. The witness of the truth of scripture is the mind of Christ in you, as scripture is a transcript of His mind.

In verse 26 we see the question of the Pharisee beautifully answered. Our Lord points him to the germ of the law. On these two phases of the great principle of love — the love of God and the love of our neighbour — hung all the law and the prophets. Right feeling vindicates the mind of Christ in this. Thus, in these three ways, did the Lord answer the challenge of His questioners.

Now we shall see whether they can answer Him. Read from Matthew 22: 36 to the end. In this we see the mind of Christ as it should be in us. He was able to give an answer to all them that asked Him, though His questions in return entirely defeated them.

In Matthew 23 Jesus judges the moral and religious scenery around Him, but He does not take the sword in His hand to do so. He was judging all things morally. There are two kinds of judgment, the one moral, which gives an answer to our souls as to all that we see around; and the other a judicial judgment, that cuts off the wicked. The first, or moral judgment, is that which our Saviour executed as He walked among men. It is not now that He judges men to their condemnation. There is no such thing as temporal judgment by Christ now. He is now sitting at the right hand of God; and if you put the sword into His hand now, you put Him out of His proper place. It is not until He comes forth as the rider of the white horse that He shall take the sword in His hand to execute all we are told of in Revelation 19. He never thought of that judgment which cuts off the wicked. Moral judgment of all He passed through was His place; and this is your place now. If you do not see it, you do not get into the mind of Christ in this particular. You must take that place of moral judgment. You must try the spirits whether they be of God; but you must not hurt nor destroy. While you judge men morally, you must not touch a hair of their heads. If you do not take this place, if you do not use the endowment of moral judgment given you, if you do not try the spirits, if you be not able to give an answer to the Herodians, Pharisees, and Sadducees of the present day — the resistance to the mind of Christ in whatever form it may present itself, you are not treading the path of Christ, you are not following His footsteps.

That which we call Christendom has not learnt this lesson. The religion of the day does not teach its votaries that this place is theirs; but we find it given to us in 1 Corinthians 2. Do you value such an endowment? Do you value the right, which is yours, of subjecting all persons and things to the judgment of the mind of Christ which is in you? The religion of the flesh tells you that in thus judging you take too much upon yourself. The religion of faith tells you that this is precisely your proper place. In this, as in all else, let the mind of Christ be in you.

The time shall come when He will take the sword, but it is not come yet. If you do not see this, if you impute present temporal judgment to Jesus, you disturb dispensational truth; but if you see Christ in this beautiful scripture, with the mind of God in Him, judging the moral and religious scenery around Him, you see His proper place then, and learn yours now as His imitators.

I repeat, this is not presumption, it is a right view of the saint's place. If I do not judge the moral and religious scenery through which my path lies, I have forgotten the mind of Jesus. If I condemn or molest, I anticipate His action. Look at the scenery through which He passes in Matthew 23 He sees it all, He judges it all with the mind of God in Him; but does He take the sword in His hand? He never thinks of such a thing. He is waiting to be gracious, waiting to be gracious to the Sadducees as to others, if haply they might repent.

Now read the close of Matthew 23. Here He writes the judgment of Jerusalem. To this effect He speaks, but it is not His to execute yet. You pass on to Matthew 24 then, and what does it introduce you to? A scene common now, as then, to me, we frequently meet with. The disciples have just heard Jesus pronounce the doom of Jerusalem, and yet they bring Him to show Him the temple . . . . . How little had His faithful and loving disciples entered into His mind! How apprehensive they were! How often do we find this the case, not only with them, but with His true saints at this time! Many of them, who truly and fervently love Him, and to whom His mind delivers itself, speak, act, and think as if that mind had never spoken. Jesus had been in the most solemn way judging every bit of the scene around. The disciples had heard Him, and yet they bring Him to show Him the temple, the tremendous and total destruction, which they have just heard foredoomed, passing from their inapprehensive minds. It is nearly incredible but is established in the mouths of more than one witness. This is a solemn truth, and a warning to us. See the conduct of Jesus in these circumstances. Is He impatient with them? Does He rebuke their slowness to sympathize with — to enter into — His mind? No. He goes over all He has said again, and at great length. He takes His seat upon the Mount of Olives, and with all the gentle patience of His unchanging unwearying love He tells them it all over again. Jerusalem is not more judged in Matthew 24 than in 23. It was judged before, but He repeats it all again for them, so slow of heart to believe.

This chapter is prophetically of much moral value. It shows the present action of the mind of Christ in the exercise of thus gracious patience. This is the second feature of the mind of Christ impressed upon us in this precious scripture. We have seen the first, the moral judgment to be exercised by the saints; the second is the patience they should exercise towards each other. If we have the mind of Christ in us, we shall have His patience in our dealings with the souls of our fellow-saints. If we meet misapprehensiveness, mistake, slowness of perception, we must then in patient love take our seat on the Mount of Olives, and read to each other the blessed lesson again, and again, and again.

There is yet another feature of the mind of Christ in this scripture, and a most important one. We are not only here taught that it is our place to judge all things morally, and to show the like patience as He did, but He shows us that it is also our place to be perpetually watching for His return.

The end of Matthew 24 and the beginning of 25 beautifully exhibit this feature of His mind to us. We are to be faithful copyists of the mind that is in Christ Jesus. I do not speak from experience — God knows I cannot — but I do want to impress it upon your souls and my own, to be imitators, beautiful copyists of the beautiful mind of our Jesus.

Look at Matthew 24: 43, and you will see there how admirably the mind of Christ trains the soul in its watching for His coming. How very graciously He begins! He gives our watching at first a very low character. The good man of the house watches against the coming of "a thief in the night." This portrays the duty in its very lowest form. It represents us as watching for His return, as though it were something against us, an object of dread and apprehension. The mind of Christ meets us here on very low ground, but it does not leave us here; it trains our hearts to reach a much higher elevation, raises our watching to a finer character, and imparts higher beauty to the same features.

Let us look at the watching in its lowest exercise. It is very good, though it expresses dread and apprehension. We should take care it does not surprise us. He does not despise that. "The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom." If we watch in dread lest His coming surprise us, it is morally good; for we shall not go into any place where we should dread His finding us. We shall not engage in any pursuit which we dread His coming finding us involved in. It is well we should be standing ready in the apprehension of an alarmed conscience. It is well that our watching should begin in that attitude, but not end in it; rather that the mind of Christ should train our hearts to a far different watching. Is it the alarmed watching for the thief in the night which your soul experiences? It is all well, it may act as a wholesome check, a great instrument for withstanding temptation. But the Lord does not leave the soul of His saints there; He fills them with the riches of His grace. If I watch for the thief in the night, I am still a watcher in the house. If I watch as the virgins, with the oil in my lamp, for the Bridegroom, I am still a watcher in the house. Let me watch with dread and apprehension, or with affection and joy, I am still a watcher. But our Lord does not leave souls watching with fear of conscience; He trains them to watch with affection and joy of heart, as the desirous virgins. J. G. B.

A Meditation

A Meditation.

Luke 6: 22, 23.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 20, p. 295.

"Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven." Luke 6: 22, 23.

It is an immense thing when you see and accept that suffering for Christ is the place of the highest distinction on earth. We may not suffer much; but the mere conviction that suffering is the highest place, and the only one of true progress, will ever be healthy discipline and encouragement. Whatever we need the Father has laid up for us in the Son. All fulness dwells in Him — all the treasures both of wisdom and knowledge; and not only is there every thing for us laid up in Him, but God also has made Him at the same time the storehouse of all that His heart needs. On earth God found His delight only in His beloved Son, now in heaven He has His people hidden in Christ. God's eyes and our eyes meet there; God's heart and our hearts find rest and satisfaction only in Christ. The Father thus brings us into companionship with Himself, into fellowship with His own joy. The spring and source of our joy must be the same as His own. Nothing less could satisfy His love for us. He will have us drink from the same fountain in which He has found His own eternal joy. It is humbling to think how little we have entered into that fellowship, but there must be a beginning. Have we begun to share His delight in His beloved Son? J. G. B.

Ministry

Ministry.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 16 p. 78.

God is the great minister. He serves all His creatures in their place and according to their order. He serves out the rain and sunshine and fruitful seasons, filling the heart with food and gladness. And when the need came, He spared not the Son of His love.

The Lord, the Son, is the personal or manifested minister. In every passage of His life He was the servant of man's sorrows and necessity; and though now in heaven He is still the Servant of His people's interests, and will be the Servant of their joy in the coming glory (Rom. 7: 17).

The Holy Ghost is the hidden effectual minister. He is ever tending the church, serving out to each saint the things of the Father and of Christ, and sustaining and comforting and teaching according to God and our infirmities. And thus we get a blessed display of ministry in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The angels are in ministry. "They are not all ministering spirits." And those of them who stand nearest the throne are perhaps the most abounding in ministry; as well they maybe from their nearness to that source of goodness. For Gabriel again and again appears in ministry; and he could say of himself as being thus very near the throne, "I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God."

The church is in ministry, divine ministry, ministry in the grace and presence of the Spirit. And the nearer we stand to Christ, the brighter and more abundant that ministry is, as we have seen in the angels. Thus in Paul, who stood so near to Jesus, what do we see but one unbroken course of self-sacrifice and service? He is in sympathy with every infirmity of the saints. Who was offended without his burning? The care of the churches came upon him daily. If He were afflicted or comforted, it was for others. Death worked in Him, but life in them. But every saint has some office to fill. We are all to be found in the great divine ministry of reconciliation which the Lord is now conducting in this world of sinners. If we are not ambassadors, yet we are appointed to fill some place in the great ambassador's train, if it be but in washing a saint's foot, or being in any wise a fellow-helper of the truth (2 Cor. v.17-21).

And thus we have ministry down from God in the highest to the weakest and most distant companion in the ranks of the redeemed. And when the glory comes, where the kingdom is established, there will be ministry still. The Lamb shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; the Lord of the kingdom will gird Himself and wait on His people; the water of life shall flow forth, and the leaves of the tree for healing; and the heavens will hear the earth, and the earth will hear the corn and the wine and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel. The less shall be blessed of the better even all through the kingdom. J.G.B.

Millennial Glory

Millennial Glory.

J. G. Bellett.

Mark 9: 15.

Christian Friend Vol. 6, p.322.

The mind of Peter on the hill was very much that of Jacob at Bethel. In one sense it was delight to him beyond expression, so that he might have said, "There was no more spirit in him." "Master, it is good for us to be here," tells the unforced necessary joy and satisfaction which the spot and occasion inspired. But then the occasion was a little too much for him. He feared, just as Jacob at Bethel, feeling that he was at the gate of heaven, and yet saying, "How dreadful is this place!" This may imply a serious state of soul in some sense; but it is a necessary state, while man is as he is. Even John in Patmos was overreached by the glory, though that was rather the judicial glory of Christ. This on the hill was the millennial, and in that a difference of experience may be accounted for. But still glory has ever proved itself too much for man, and a freeness was needed to give him ease in the presence of it, as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and others show us.

Paul in the third heavens had no alarms. He had visions and audiences which he could not communicate to others; but they did not alarm or overpower him at all. And this distinction is simple as well as manifest; for Paul was not as Peter. Peter on the hill was still flesh and blood. Paul in Paradise was simply "a man in Christ," whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell; the body may have been no help to him, neither was it any hindrance to him. If he enjoyed all these blessed communications both in seeing and hearing, he did so without the sense of his being like Peter in the body, and therefore is he the more sure witness of the state of a spirit having enjoyment incommunicable to others, but unalloyed with any fear or other exception to himself. Thus, however, it was with Peter and his brethren on the hill. The place was glorious, and they could have remained there for ever; but still they were not altogether prepared for it. The joy of the place itself spake in them and through them when they said, "It is good for us to be here." The necessary unpreparedness of flesh and blood for the vision told of itself in the fear that accompanied this.

But mark the operation of this glory further. When the Lord reached the foot of the hill, the multitudes on seeing Him "were greatly amazed, and" — some of them at least — "running to Him saluted Him." This is very remarkable; but, meditated on a little, it is full of beautiful and interesting meaning. I have no doubt that the Lord bore on His person the reflection or shine of the glory unto which He had just been transfigured on the top of the hill. The word "amazed" here is the same as "affrighted" in Mark 16: 5; and there it distinctly expresses that sentiment of the soul which is awakened by the vision of a glorious heavenly emotion. So that I doubt not the Lord was here seen under some shine or reflection of the glory.

But what does all this tell us? I believe it is designed to bear us on to the day when the glorified family in heaven will visit the earth, and be recognized and enjoyed in their peculiar heavenly persons. They will be known by the people in the footstool that they belong to a scene above, and surpassing their own. "The glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another." They will be recognized in such a character. The throne will be known to be theirs, while the footstool is the place of those whom they occasionally visit. But this sentiment of the soul, while felt and owned, and in its beautiful and perfect measure acted on, will not be overwhelming. They salute Jesus, though amazed. J. G. B.

Moses's Loss of Canaan

Moses's Loss of Canaan.

J. G. Bellett.

from  Musings on Scripture, Volume 1.

Moses had his ordinary shepherd's rod in his hand, when God called him to feed Israel (Ex. 4). It then, became God's rod, for God made it the symbol and instrument of Moses's authority and grace in Israel. He was thenceforth to take it, that by it he might do his wonders in Egypt and in the wilderness, for judgment on the enemy, and for blessing on the people (Ex. 4: 17).

It first swallowed up the rods of Egypt, to show that no strength could stand before God's strength, thus giving Egypt notice that it was hard to kick against the pricks (Ex. 7: 12). But Egypt would not learn that lesson. And then the rod brings the plagues of blood, of frogs, and of lice, till the magicians own that they could not measure their strength with the Lord's (Ex. 8: 19). It is then used in the plagues of hail (Ex. 9: 93), locusts (Ex. 10: 13), and darkness (Ex. 10: 22), and finally for the destruction of the firstborn as well as the deliverance of Israel, and for the overthrow of Egypt in the Red Sea (Ex. 12 - 14).

Thus was it the instrument of judgment and of grace in Egypt. It was but a weak shepherd's rod at first, but as such it was the more fit to become God's rod, for He ever perfects His strength in our weakness, and chooses the weak things to confound the mighty.

But we are still to see the rod in the wilderness, for Moses with it opens the rock in Horeb (Ex. 17: 5, 6). By the same Shepherd's strength and grace He now feeds the camp in the desert, as that by which He had redeemed them from bondage.

By all this use of the rod, Moses (and Aaron, his associate) should have been fully submitted to by all the congregation. The wonders they did (of which this rod was the symbol) had fully accredited them, and entire subjection to them as the king and the priest, or God's dignities, was the righteous place of the congregation. But it happens otherwise. The congregation despise these dignities, and are for setting aside this king and this priest of God (Num. 16: 3). That was a solemn moment in Israel. The rebellion of Korah and his companions was an awful consummation of despite of the Lord. But then the Lord pleads the cause Himself. He judges the offenders, and in a solemn trial of the question, He determines by the budding rod who His dignities or officers were, that the murmuring of the congregation might be silenced for ever, and that they might thus be saved from death (Num. 17: 8).

Now we have much of the way of the Lord Jesus in all this. Jesus was set forth to Israel at the first as their shepherd. He did His wonders of grace and strength. His miracles and healings and teachings were enough to accredit Him, so that they owned for a season that this was He (Matt. 12: 23). But Israel at length rose up against Him, they despised God's King and Priest, like Korah and his company, crucifying the Lord of glory, But God pleaded His cause against the nation by raising Him from the dead. Jesus brought forth. in resurrection is the budding of the rod, the dead stick blooming blossoms and bearing almonds. Jesus in resurrection has all the virtue of this rod, both in silencing the murmur of every rival, and securing from death the soul that will trust in Him, and allow His claims. These two virtues of the resurrection are largely preached by the apostles. The resurrection has made Jesus a Prince and a Saviour. It has vindicated His claims and made Him the dispenser of life. By it God has fully declared that all power is Christ's, that He is the spring of life, and the executor of judgment. And the apostles were the preachers of the resurrection in these its virtues, and the angel at the tomb so witnessed to it (Matt. 28: 18-20; Acts 2: 36; Acts 17: 31; Acts 3: 13, 16; Acts 5: 31; Acts 1: 22; Acts 4: 10-12; Rom. 1: 4). And now all blessing must flow through it, through this new rod, the budding rod, not Jesus as before, born of a virgin, but Jesus brought from the dead; not the rod that was first in Moses's hand, but the rod that was brought from before the Lord (Num. 20: 9; Num. 18: 7).

It is quite true that many, perhaps, at future seasons would not hear the voice of the budding rod, as now many will not hear the voice of the resurrection; but that does not alter the voice. Whether they will hear it or not, it silences murmurs — the budding rod and the resurrection have established those claims, for which Moses and Jesus the Son of God had been previously rejected and reproached.

This seems to me a simple following out of the history and the mystery of the rod. But then this also gives us the character of Moses's and Aaron's sin by which they forfeited the land.

God will be sanctified in them that come nigh Him (Lev. 10: 3). He will have the provision which He has made, for either His own service or His people's blessing, honoured by them. And the contrary of this was the sin of Nadab and Abihu. They took fire of their own, and did not use God's fire, the provision He had made for His own altar. Thus they did not sanctify Him. And this was the sin of Moses and Aaron here. They did not sanctify God in His ordinances of the budding rod. They did not use it according to God's mind about it. They did not give it its ordained place, or duly own its virtues before the congregation. They acted as they did before, striking instead of speaking. They did not know the power of this rod — using strength instead of preaching the virtue of it. Nor did they duly honour the grace of the rod, for in it God's grace had greatly abounded. In spite of all their sin in the matter of Korah, God had set up this other witness for His praise and their blessing. But Moses and Aaron act no more in full sympathy with the grace than they had with the power of the rod, for they upbraid the people as well as strike the rock, while they were told merely to speak to the rock, and to do nothing with the people, but bring them forth the water. Their conduct, therefore, was unbelief in the virtues of this mystic rod. It was unbelief in the present ordinance, and a return to previous dispensations. They forgot the lesson of Numbers 17 for a moment, and thus they forfeited the land.

Such was their sin, and such their judgment. And it is like present unbelief in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ risen is God's great ordinance now. The resurrection, as I have said, is the true budding rod. It is that ordinance which has the virtues of Aaron's rod in it. When the resurrection is not honoured in its fulness of grace to sinners, and of glory to God, as that which silences every tongue that should rise against the holy claims of Jesus, and also hinders the death and feeds the life of the poor sinner that will trust in Him, God's ordinance is not honoured, and then comes forfeiture of all blessing. For God must be honoured in His ordinances, and sanctified in them that come nigh to Him.

Now to this I would just further add, that Saul of Tarsus offended against the resurrection. He was chief among those who killed the witness of it (Acts 8: 1). But Saul was brought to know it, and by that knowledge to die himself, — and to live to be the witness of a higher glory still, even of ascension or heavenly glory. And so with Moses here. He offends against the budding rod, and loses Canaan, but afterwards shines in the glory of the church on the top of the hill (Matt. 17: 3).

Moses's Heavenly Glory

Moses's Heavenly Glory.

J. G. Bellett.

from Musings on Scripture, Volume 1.

In the previous paper I have meditated on Moses's loss of Canaan. I would now trace the testimony to his heavenly glory. For though he lost the one, the Lord through abounding grace had prepared for him the other.

From Acts 7, we learn that the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ by the earth was the occasion (I speak, of course, as remembering that "known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world") of giving him a glory in heaven, and in connection with a family there, of an order higher than any glory He would have known or gathered, had the earth received, instead of rejecting Him. But that chapter also tells us, that that mystery had been typified in the histories of both Joseph and Moses. Joseph was sold, and Moses was refused by their brethren, but, by reason of that, Joseph got joy and glory and a family in Egypt, and Moses got the same in Midian; and each of them was thus, in his day, a foreshadowing of the glory and joy of the Son of God, in the midst of the church or heavenly family, consequent on His being rejected in His day also by Israel and the earth.

But, in the progress of Moses's history, we get him a second time separated from Israel, such separation being also followed by the same heavenly results. The sin of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai, by which the covenant was broken and the blessing forfeited, casts Moses again into the same heavenly character. Upon that sin of the golden calf the tabernacle is removed, and pitched without the camp, the Lord in righteousness disowning His revolted people. But there Moses meets Him, and meets Him too in a new way, "face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend" (Ex. 33: 11). This had not been so before. It was the expression of increased intimacy between the Lord and Moses. It was letting him into friendship with the Lord, such as the church now stands in (John 15: 15). It was a new thing with Moses, a fresh character of glory in Him, as his previous dwelling in Midian among the Gentiles had been new in its day. And it was just the thing that distinguished Moses from all Jewish worthies or prophets, and took him above them; as we read, "there arose not a prophet since in Israel, like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face" (Deut. 34). And being in this place of intimacy, or in this heavenly place, he acts according to the high prerogatives of it. He passes and re-passes between the glorious tabernacle which the cloud guarded, and the camp of the congregation (Ex. 33: 11). And this movement expressed his equal access to heaven and to earth, and thus that he was the mediator, the shadow of our heavenly Priest, Christ Jesus. Joshua the while was kept in the tabernacle, as the servant separated, it is true, from the defiled and revolted people (as the righteous remnant will be in the latter day), but still not let into the place of intimacy, the heavenly place, which Moses filled.

And in another case he acts according to the high prerogatives of this new and heavenly character. He marries an Ethiopian woman (Num. 12). He takes another wife from among the Gentiles, and those too who were, in common esteem, the very basest of the Gentiles (Jer. 13). His natural kindred, his connections in the flesh, were not prepared for this; and they speak against him, and are for refusing his place and authority. He being a man of heavenly temper, more meek than any who could have been found on the earth, says nothing to all this. But the Lord pleads his cause, and in doing so vindicates him on the very ground of that heavenly character which he had acquired in the days of the golden calf, or of the apostasy of the earthly people. "Hear now my words," says the Lord to Aaron and Miriam, "if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream; my servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house; with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore, then, were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

Here the Lord very strikingly pleads in favour of Moses, and in full vindication of his doing an act which earthly or fleshly kindred did not understand, and were not prepared for, the intimacy with Himself which Moses had acquired by the former sin of that earthly people. That intimacy, or speaking "face to face" with the Lord, had thus raised him quite above the Jewish or earthly level, and had clearly given him a heavenly character, one of the prerogatives of which he had been now exercising, in marrying an Ethiopian woman, as he had before, as I have shown, exercised another of them, in passing and re-passing between the Lord in the tabernacle of glory and the camp of the people.

And I must notice the value of the word "all" in this passage. It is very striking in connection with my subject — "who is faithful in all my house," says the Lord, words which went to tell Aaron and Miriam that Moses was a person of special dignity, having access to all parts of the Lord's house. It was not only that he was faithful, but faithful in all parts of the house, having title to be in the holiest, or heavenly place, as well as in the tabernacle of the congregation or the courts. For it is Moses's dignity as well as fidelity that his divine Advocate is here pleading.

And this strikes me as being very clear and strong; and thus Moses's second marriage, or with the Ethiopian, has the same voice as his first marriage, or with the Midianite. Both show him in heavenly character, or as the type of the Lord in union with the church.

Thus Moses becomes a partaker of the heavenly calling, and according to this, as we may now further see, at the end he occupies the heavenly place.

We see him for instance, in the Mount Pisgah, viewing the land of Canaan stretched out beneath him (Deut. 34). That was a new mount of God to him. It lay a little outside the promised land, but it afforded him a full view of it. It was a high eminence, the top of Pisgah on Mount Nebo, in the mountains of Abarim. The earth had now ceased to own Moses, Israel also knew him no more, the wilderness too had all been passed, and the Lord alone is his company on the hill that overlooked the land of promise. What an expression of the place of the church or heavenly glory, the whole of this is! On high with the Lord, Moses looks down on the earthly inheritance, the place of the tribes of Israel, Gilead and Dan, Naphtali, Ephraim and Manasseh, with all the land of Judah to the sea, the south too, and the valley of Jericho, with the city of palm trees unto Zoar! A place that could command such objects beneath, and in such company, is heavenly indeed Moses is on high with the Lord, looking on the cities and plains where the redeemed and happy families of the earth were to dwell. It is from heaven alone that such blessing and occupation of the earth, in righteousness and peace, will be seen by the Lord and His children of the resurrection.*

*We have also a witness to the heavenly glory of Aaron, Moses's associate. He dies as a priest on the top of the hill, the earthly people being beneath him, and knowing him only as a priest in the high places (Num. 20).

And again as another witness of Moses in the heavenly place, we see him in the New Testament, on another mount, the Mount of the Transfiguration. Peter, James, and John are there, presenting Israel and the earthly people, and they are on the outside. But Moses is there, again in company with the Lord and another co-heir of the heavenly glory, and they are within, enwrapped in the cloud of the excellent glory, the true veil that is to separate the holy place from the courts, or the heavens from the earth. Moses is on the heavenly side of that veil, glorified in the likeness of the very Lord of the glory Himself.

These are two strong and clear testimonies to the heavenly glory of Moses — striking exhibition of him in the heavenly place, being in company with the Lord on the top of two hills, from the one of which he sees the earthly inheritance beneath him, and from the other, the earthly people outside him. And thus I judge, from all these witnesses which we have here listened to, we gather both the heavenly calling and glory, or the heavenly character and place of this honoured and faithful servant of God. A child of the resurrection he is, and a joint-heir of God with Jesus Christ.

Thus does Moses lose the earth, but gains heaven. He loses Canaan by his own wrong, trespassing, as we have seen, against the grace and power of the budding rod, but he gains glory on the top of the hill that overlooked Canaan, through the abounding kindness and love of God his Saviour. Law says that "no man shall take advantage of his own wrong," and justly so; for righteousness forbids the thought that anyone shall gain a benefit by his own mis-doing. But grace does not act by law, for the glory we reap through it, as pardoned sinners, is richer and brighter far than that which Adam in innocency knew. God's riddle is solved in our history — the eater has yielded meat, and the strong man sweetness. Moses and the church both illustrate it; both are travelling onward through forfeiture of the earth, led by the hand of the Son of God, to the top of that hill which looks down on the goodly tents of Jacob beneath. O beloved, what manner of people should we be! May the life and energy of the indwelling Spirit keep us more and more separated to heavenly character and heavenly hopes! Amen, Lord Jesus.

The Mount of God

The Mount of God.

Exodus 1 - 13.

J. G. Bellett.

from  Musings on Scripture, Volume 1.

I separate these chapters because they present us, I judge, a distinct subject for meditation, and afford us some of the grounds on which it is that Horeb, or Sinai, in Arabia, is called in scripture "the Mount of God."

They open with Israel in Egypt, and that land is seen in her guilt before God, for it is here written of her, "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." That land was thus the ungrateful, the rebellious. She had departed from Joseph, and so from God Himself, from Him who had filled her storehouses with plenty, and her throne with honour and strength. Thus Egypt was in miniature the world — the great apostate from its rightful Lord and gracious Benefactor. And the Lord had no sanctuary, no altar, there. His people would have sacrificed the abomination of that land (Ex. 8: 26), and therefore they must go into the wilderness to hold their feast, or do their service to the Lord. All was apostate and ripe for judgment. Joseph's memory had been despised, and all that remained to Joseph was put to the brick-kilns (Ex. 1).

But in such a place the Lord has a cluster, and in the cluster a blessing. The cluster of Israel in the vineyard of Egypt at this time savoured, it is true, too much of the soil where it grew; for as the one had forgotten Moses, so does the other now refuse Moses, saying, "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?" But God has His remnant even in such a generation, His blessing in such a cluster (Isa. 65: 8), and it is found in the tribe of Levi, to which this second Joseph (the offered, but rejected, deliverer of his nation) belonged. "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment."

But the name of this child, this predestined deliverer of His people, has its meaning. Pharaoh's daughter, as we know, called him "Moses," because she had "drawn him out" from the waters. But God had His purpose, it appears, in that name also, for it is from henceforth to the end owned by the Spirit of God. He was another Noah. Noah had been "drawn out." An ark had kept him in the waters till the dry land again received him; and that was, as we are divinely taught, a like figure with baptism of death and resurrection (1 Peter 3: 20, 21). And so Moses now. He had been kept in an ark through the waters, that place of death, till he stood again in the place of life, as one that had died and had risen (Ex. 2).

Thus was he mystically the dead and risen man; and he acts, "when he was come to years," in the power of resurrection, refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, rather choosing affliction with the people of God; that is, disclaiming his advantages in the flesh and in the world, and walking by faith, seeing Him who is invisible, and having respect unto the recompense of the reward.

Such an one is he, thus, both in his person and character, ere he goes forth to run his appointed service, whether among strangers or in Israel. Through their present unbelief, rejecting this deliverer, the children of Israel are left for a time longer at the Egyptian brick-kilns. But he whom they thrust from them is accepted in another place, and seated, not at the head of a nation, but of a family, enjoying intimacies and affections sweeter and closer than ever he had known before among his own kindred. A stranger receives him. Jethro, the Midianite, opens his house to him, and gives him his daughter in marriage, because he had been her deliverer, though, in spite of the same grace towards them, Israel had just refused him.

This family of strangers is mystically the church taken from the Gentiles during the Lord's estrangement from Israel, as has been often observed among us, beloved. I do not therefore stop to look at it particularly. But (as we generally know) the blessing is not to be spent on this family of strangers. Israel is had in remembrance still, though they have once refused the deliverer. Accordingly Moses, in due season, is called forth to change the scene of his action again, and bear God's redeeming love and strength back to Israel in Egypt. For He is their only hope and channel of blessing. If in their distress Israel cry to the Lord, the answer must come by the hand of Him whom once they refused. The Lord has no other help for them. From the outcast Joseph alone is the Shepherd and stone of Israel. But He can and will answer. The ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth have heard the cry, and Moses is immediately put in readiness to return from Midian into Egypt for the help of Israel.

The burning bush is now the symbol of God's constant care of Israel, though in the furnace of Egypt. It tells Moses how in all their affliction the Lord had been afflicted, and how the angel of His presence had still preserved them. And it is in connection with this mystic bush that Horeb is first called "the Mount of God." For now it is that the Lord is first telling of Himself there. He "who dwelt in the bush" had a "goodwill" towards them, for if the Son of God be in the furnace with His people, it is to preserve them. And this same spot which now thus testified of grace should by-and-by testify of glory to them, as is here said to Moses, "When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God on this mountain" (Ex. 3; 4).

Thus was it now between the Lord and Moses at this holy mount. Then by miracle upon miracle, in the sight of Egypt, and with plague upon plague, and fury poured out, this deliverer rescues Israel from under the hand of their taskmasters. It was the day of judgment to Egypt, as afterwards it was to Canaan. For Egypt was the world, as I have said. She had filled up her sins. She had despised the day of grace in Joseph, and now comes the day of judgment by Moses. It is as the wrath of the Lamb coming on those who refuse the blood of the Lamb. Pharaoh said he knew not the Lord, but Pharaoh must know Him (Ex. 5: 2; Ex. 9: 14). If Pharaoh would disown Him in goodness, he must know Him in righteousness, for His judgments were now to be made manifest, and "the Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth." As His holy prophet says to Him, "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." God would be known in grace; but if that lesson be refused by Egypt, she must know Him in the uplifted hand of power, as she now does, till the strength and flower of her people lie on the banks of the Red Sea (Ex. 5 - 15).

But I desire, in the midst of these scenes which these chapters give us, to look for awhile at the children of Israel between the Paschal night and the banks of the Red Sea.

The blood on the lintels had secured the first-born, and the Egyptian had then allowed Israel to pass out of the land. But the Egyptian himself was not yet destroyed, neither was Israel clearly beyond the borders of the enemy. These results waited till the Red Sea was reached and crossed. And till then they are not at ease, nor have they any song. The Egyptian has gone out after them, and they judge, as it were, that it is nothing but death before and behind. They see the cloud, and they cannot but remember the shelter of the blood, and that they have, in some sense, left Egypt. But in some sense also they judge themselves to be in a worse state than ever. And such often is a stage in the history of a converted soul. There is the quickening, the rising up as out of Egypt, the sudden new direction which the soul takes, with some sense of the value of the blood of Christ. But withal, this quickening, this rising up, does but lead the soul to judge worse of its condition than ever. A new sense of death comes in, guilt by trespasses and sins is apprehended, and no adequate assurance of the completeness of redemption. There is a shutting in between Jesus and God, if I may so speak. The soul can look to Jesus — His blood on the door-post has told of His love, but God has not been so apprehended as to give certainty and ease of heart. All the virtue of the cross is not known, as all the virtue of the cloud and the rod is not known by Israel here. For the cloud had virtue not only to lead the redeemed, but to overthrow their pursuers. It could change its ground, and stand between the two camps, and while it was light to the one, be darkness to the other; as its companion, the rod could make a passage for the one, and bury the other in the mighty waters.

And so in like manner has the cross its full and double virtue. It rescues the sinner and silences all his accusers. But until those virtues be understood, the soul will be kept as in the interval from the passover to the Red Sea. Let, however, the cloud and the rod fully display themselves — let the cross of Christ publish all its virtue in the ear of faith, then Israel can sing their song, and the believer can say, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" God as well as Jesus can then be triumphed in, the whole character of the cross being made known to the soul. The enmities are seen to be all abolished (Eph. 2)  - the law to have found its end (Rom. 10) — sin to have paid its wages, and thereupon discharged (Rom. 6) — the great enemy to have been led a captive with all his powers (Col. 2) — death to have been abolished (2 Tim. 1) — and the flesh to have been found out, rebuked, and discharged also (Rom. 7, 8). And as the enemy is thus seen dead on the shore, so the believer sees himself fully rescued accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1) — happy in the adoption and love of God (Rom. 8) — treated as in the Spirit, and not in the flesh (Rom. 8) safe in that hand out of which none can pluck (John 10) — dwelling in  that love which leaves no room for fear (1 John 4). Israel has passed the waters.

Thus is it ofttimes still with the soul, as here it is with Israel. Of course the full victory of Jesus for the sinner may be understood at once, for the gospel publishes it without reserve. But till it be, the song is not learnt, the redeemed one is on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea.

But the sea once crossed, Israel understands the cloud and the rod, and Egypt and its enmity are gone for ever. Ere, however, they reach "the Mount of God," where they were to hold their feast, they are to learn the hand that would lead them, as well as the arm that had just saved them. For there is to be a journey from the sea to the mount, as there had been from Egypt to the sea; and on this second journey we would also linger with them a little space (Ex. 15 - 17).

Five distinct lessons are taught the people on this journey, the value of each of which the soul of the saint still also enters into. The song has already instructed them in the Lord's victory, and that song should be kept alive in their hearts all through, whatever other lesson they might learn, for that was a deathless victory, and the fruit of it they were gathering every step of the way. But after it we get the healing of Marah, the wells and palm-trees of Elim, the manna, the water from the rock, the discomfiture of Amalek. These five distinct actions, displaying the Lord's varied grace and power, pass before us in this interval from the Red Sea to "the Mount of God." And each of them tells us of His care for His congregation in the wilderness. The healing of the waters of Marah by the tree tells us of the consolations which are provided to meet the sorrows of this evil world. Paul gathered of that tree, when he could say, "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." The wells and palm-trees tell us of the occasional refreshings which the saint gets through communion and ministry. The camp passed them, and saw them no more, after taking, as it were, one repast of them. So the apostle could sit down at them for awhile, when comforted by the mutual faith of himself and others. The manna, in its turn, tells us of blessing also. It speaks of Jesus, the bread of life. Unlike the provision of Elim, it remained. It waited, morning and evening, for forty years on the camp, and fed them till they reached the land of corn and oil — as the true bread which the Father gives can feed us, let the place of the desert be what or where it may. The water from the rock tells us in due order of the Holy Ghost, the abiding Comforter. Unlike the wells of Elim also, this water follows through all the way, as the Giver of the true water says, "that he may abide with you for ever." And, lastly, the overthrow of Amalek tells of the strength of the right hand of the Lord over that which would dare to withstand the way of that ransomed people over whom the Lord of the glory was hovering.*

*When the people murmur for water, Moses knows not what to do (Ex. 17). But when Jesus stands in the same connection with the poor sinner of Samaria, without delay or any sense of difficulty, He undertakes to give her water (John 4). For He was (and knew Himself to be) that rock which Moses saw, and which was ready still with its living streams to wait on the thirst of every poor sinner along the paths of this wilderness world. But what infinite distance personally does this show between Jesus and Moses! Moses was indeed but the servant, Jesus the Lord of that living rock.

Thus they learn the sufficiency of God's grace and strength for their necessity. He has the bread and the water for them, the healing tree, and, the palms of Elim, though the place be desert and dry, and victory for them when the enemy appears.

And here let me say that the Lord acquires His holy honours by all those acts and mercies which He accomplishes for His poor people. Thus His memorials are engraved on our blessings. Wonderful grace and perfection of goodness this is, that God should be celebrated by and in that which blesses us! He got the title of "Jehovah-jireh," because He graciously provided a ram in the place of Isaac; He was celebrated as "a man of war," because He got the victory for His people in the Red Sea; He was "Jehovah-rophi," because He healed the bitter waters for the camp; He was "Jehovah-nissi," because He was their banner against the face of Amalek. And so I might show still farther. But this is enough to tell us how the Lord makes himself a name, as Jeremiah says (Jer. 32: 20), by doing for us, and acquires (such is His grace) His own praise and honour by that which secures His people their blessing. The victory of Christ was over our enemies. If we believe His victory, we must believe our own salvation. To question our blessing is to refuse Him His praise. And it is a blessed economy of goodness that thus weaves the two inseparably together.

But the last of these lessons has large instruction in it, and I would look at it a little more particularly. Amalek was the grandson of Esau, and Esau, as we know, was the profane one — the man of the world. And Amalek appears before us in this place as one in that long line of wilful ones who run their course across the face of the earth, "mighty hunters before the Lord," or defiers and rivals of God Himself. At this moment the glory was seen over Israel and the rock was following them with its streams. But what was all this to Amalek? What did he care for the glory? Such as Isaiah or Daniel might learn their own vileness from it, and Peter in its presence might know himself to be a sinful man, but the glory had no lesson of holy fear for such as Amalek. He comes out the rather to measure strength with it. He is as the one who by-and-by will dare to plant his idols on the battlements of the holy city, and his tabernacles on the glorious holy mountain. What is the glory to such as these? "Our tongues are our own," say they. Their standards may rival the Lord's pillar. But the hand that holds them shall wither, as Amalek here falls, and as the last of the race shall hereafter fall (Dan. 11), with none to help him.

This may be fearful, and it is so; but it ends the trial and discipline of Israel. As in that future day also, when the last Amalek falls, Michael will stand up, and every one found written in the book shall be delivered, so here the discomfiture of this enemy makes full and easy way for Israel to "the Mount of God." That place, out to which they had been called from Egypt, under promise that there they should serve the Lord, and hold their feast to Him, is now reached, their toil and discipline and danger all over.

And this long promised and now attained mountain is again called "the Mount of God." The first time Moses is seen there, the burning bush, as we then saw, told him of grace; but now there is to be something to tell him of glory. Then he saw the pledge of redemption, now he is to see the pledge of the kingdom (Ex. 18).

Zipporah and her children had been sent home to her father's house; and, as far we can judge, immediately after the circumcision of the child (Ex. 4), and naturally so. For there was something in that action that was not according to the mind of a Gentile wife. But Moses, when returning in connection with Israel, should have owned the circumcision of the God of Abraham. Coming back to his kindred in the flesh, he should have remembered the legislative national token in the flesh. The reproach of Midian should have been put away then, as the reproach of Egypt was afterwards (Joshua 5). But Zipporah, who had no fleshly kindredness with Israel, could not have been prepared for this, and therefore with her the Lord had no controversy. It was Moses or his child, and not Zipporah, whom the Lord would have slain at the inn, according to the ordinance (Gen. 17: 14). And his life being forfeited to that ordinance, it was grace that spared him. And it is altogether likely that it was just at that moment Zipporah was sent home. The Spirit, however, has left it without certainty. And justly so, as I judge, because her departure home to Midian is typically the hiding of the Gentile, or heavenly family, in the Father's house, till the Lord, the true Moses, conducts those judgments on this Egypt-world, which are to issue in the deliverance of His earthly people and the kingdom.

But Egypt being judged, Israel redeemed, disciplined, and led to the borders of the mount, the due time had come for the reappearance of Zipporah, the Gentile wife. She is now manifested, led out by the hand of her father, for reunion with Moses at "the Mount of God," when all the action of judgment and redemption was now gloriously and fully accomplished.

The scene here is thus strikingly beautiful and significant. We have here (as another has justly called him) "the mysterious Kenite," for Jethro is a type or mystery, a sign of that which is especially the mystery. He here meets the redeemed heirs of earthly blessing till now a stranger to them. He comes from regions unknown to Israel. But when they meet there is no want of full companionship. A common hand seems to have led them towards each other. The deeds of the Lord, His famous deeds for Israel, are rehearsed, when Jethro and Moses had kissed each other, and the family affection had taken its course. The strangers congratulate the earthly tribes on their recent rescue and prosperous journey to "the Mount of God," and now the union of the great deliverer of Israel, with this distant unknown family was made manifest. Hitherto this had been a hidden union. But now the wife and the children, led forth by the father, appear in the presence of his fleshly kindred, and take a place nearer to Moses, the great centre of the whole scene, than any of them.

The stranger likewise soon takes the highest dignities, as well as fills the place of nearest affection. He occupies, as it were, both the throne and the temple, giving direction to the lawgiver, and offering sacrifice in the presence of the priest. The last is first — the younger before the elder — the stranger in higher honour than the kindred.

But what is all this but in figure the dispensation of the fulness of times, the gathering together in one of all things in heaven and in earth? What is it less than the raising of the ladder between heaven and earth? Do we not here listen to the intercourse of the priestly stranger with redeemed Israel, rejoicing in their blessing, but holding still the place of holiness and honour? Jethro assumes the place of Melchizedek. In no less glories than those of king and priest together does he here shine before us. He offers the sacrifices and spreads the feast for Aaron, and sits as chief in the seat of judgment with Moses. And when he had thus displayed his glories, rejoiced in the prosperity of God's chosen, and led their praise for the mercy, "he went his way." As was said of the God of Abraham before, "and the Lord went his way as soon as he had done communing with Abraham" (Gen. 18). So now Jethro, having rejoiced with Israel and displayed his glories, goes his way. For both were as strangers in the earth, and a distant way led them to their proper home.

Thus we have great things in this chapter, The opening of it shows us the heavenly One descending, and the close of it show us His return or ascending in figure, as the angels of God once ascended and descended on the mystic ladder, and will again upon the Son of man. And it shows us also in figure all things in heaven and earth gathered in that one who has connection with the two great households, though in different ways, while they themselves were unknown to each other till now. All this tells indeed of the dispensation of the fulness of times (Eph. 1: 10). This mount, where all this is seen, is now again called "the Mount of God," as being in this manner the place of glory, as before when it was called "the Mount of God," it was as strikingly the place of grace, or the burning bush. It well deserves the praise. It surely is the mystic holy ground where the trees of the blessed God are thus to be seen, and where we learn those ways of His, that establish the heart both in faith and hope.

This intercourse between the heavenly and earthly families having one great centre, as it will be enjoyed in the coming kingdom, so has it been typified in many past shadows. The ladder which Jacob saw, and to which I have alluded, gave it in figure to us. The passing and re-passing of Moses from the cloudy tabernacle to the camp of the congregation (Ex. 33), was another expression of this intercourse between the place of the glory and the earth. The vision on the mount of transfiguration, where the glorified family were seen, and also the representative of Israel, gives us another pledge of it. The interviews between the risen Lord and His disciples, still in their earthly places, is a like figure: for then at seasons He showed Himself to them, but His place was more duly in heaven, His word being "touch me not," though at times He would eat and drink with them as before. So, the notice that is taken of the ascent, by which Solomon went up to the house of the Lord, and which was one of the principal objects that rested on the vision, and filled the spirit of the queen of Sheba, is another intimation of the same (2 Chr. 9); for it looked somewhat above, and apart from, the mere earthly places, to which the sitting of the servants, the furniture of the tables, and all the royal magnificence and fulness pertained, and would probably have drawn her thoughts upwards. And so this our closing chapter shows the same. Here is the ladder again, the communion of the heavens with the earth in the days of glory. Moses's estrangement from Israel for a season, his secrecy among the Gentiles with his father, his wife, and his children there, then his return to Israel, and their redemption and discipline under his hand, the overthrow of the great enemy who dared to affront the glory of the Lord, and finally, the place of peace, "the Mount of God," where the strangers and Israel (both, though differently, having found their union with Moses the common deliverer) meet for the first time to rejoice together, while the stranger fills the nearer intimacies and the higher dignities: all these tell out the mystic tale of the heavens and the earth in the coming kingdom or fulness of times. The union of the bride and the bridegroom, which before had been hidden, is now published, and the Gentile stands nearer to Moses than all his kindred in the flesh.

There is a voice in all this, beloved, that we cannot but hear. For thus will it be in the kingdom, surely. Is not all that is royal and glorious to be on the earth then, with the ascent to heaven from Jerusalem? Is not the true ladder to be there, and the ministers of the kingdom passing and re-passing upon it? Is not the glory then to be a covering on the dwelling-places and assemblies of Zion? "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad." Tales of mercy and salvation will then be rehearsed, as here; and the church will learn the joy of Israel's deliverance, though they never knew each other before, for the church's path had been heavenly, and Israel's earthly, and thus they lay not in the same regions at all. But then they will find that all the while they have had a common centre in the true Moses, the true Bridegroom of the true heavenly stranger, the true deliverer and leader of the tribes of Israel. And then as Jethro here spreads the refreshments and gives the blessing, so the golden city, the city of the heavenly strangers, will pour forth its light and its waters, the effulgence of its glories and the streams of its fountains, to gladden and refresh the earth, and Israel with her attendant nations shall be blest in the millennial kingdom of the Son of man.

The next chapter (Ex. 19) introduces us to other scenes and thoughts altogether, so as to allow us to look at this scripture (Ex. 1 - 18) by itself. And it is, as it were, one of the title deeds of Horeb to the holy dignity which it bears. It shows us why it should be called "the Mount of God." For grace and glory, as we have now seen, both display themselves there, and they belong to God. The next scenes are still, however at the same meant, and they will give us to read again, though in other lines (the Lord giving us grace and His blessing), the title of that mount to bear the same holy inscription upon it. And if we still linger upon it, beloved, may our souls get some little increased strength to rise above the level of this corrupted earth, and all its low ambitions and vanities.

Exodus 19 - 40.

I have already looked at Horeb, "the Mount of God," as the witness of grace and glory, or of redemption and the kingdom, being the spot where the Lord of Israel first showed Himself in the burning bush, the symbol of grace or salvation, and afterwards displayed the glories and joys of the kingdom in the intercourse of Jethro with the ransomed tribes of Israel.

But though all this has passed, the congregation are still in the same place; and the place, as we shall now see, is still giving us to read its title to be called "the Mount of God."

In the opening of our present chapters we reach the third month since the exodus. A new era is thus noticed by the Spirit, and accordingly new scenes and new thoughts will be found to unfold themselves. The heart of the people is here called into exercise. Moses the mediator passes and repasses between them and the Lord; and. all this tests the mind that was in them, and ends in proving the security of the natural man, and his confidence in himself to do all that the Lord shall command (Ex. 19).

But this their way was their folly. They had been brought out of Egypt by Him who dwelt in the bush, "the God of grace," the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and the same hand had led them through the desert up to the mount where "the God of glory," had in figure shown His kingdom and joy to them. But now, as soon as the Lord, having thus shown, what He was, turns, as it were, to inquire what they were, and whether they would now trust in themselves rather than in Him, the ground of the heart is discovered. Man is found to be selfconfident and boastful, ready to enter upon terms with God, rather than be simply debtor to Him for grace and glory.

Accordingly this mount, where all so lately was the peace and honour of the kingdom in the presence of Jethro, now on the departure of that mysterious stranger becomes the fiery mount. It puts on new attributes altogether. It is preparing itself to consume the sinner, a mount of blackness and darkness and tempest, where the voice of God is heard in righteousness, where the ten words (or the covenant of the law of works), putting man to the trial which he had too confidently submitted to, are now to be published.

But what will such trial end in? It must leave all their comeliness as rottenness. The burning mount of the law here gives them at once to know the terribleness of that righteousness which they had challenged, and they can but cry out in the fear of it (Ex. 20).

This, however, so far was as it should be. This cry of fear was the proper seasonable fruit of the ground on which Israel now stood, as the Lord Himself afterwards says (Deut. 5; 18). And according to this fear they stand afar off. But the mediator draws near to the thick darkness where God was, and there, as between the Lord of Israel and His people, he receives the statutes of the kingdom which were to make Israel the Lord's nation — a separated people, who were to have the Lord for their God and King, bearing His image and superscription upon them. And he is promised also an angel to go before him, presiding, as it were, over this covenant of the nation, in whom the name of the Lord of Israel was to be; so that if they obeyed Him they should be blest, but, if they refused, He would not pardon their transgressions (Ex. 21 - 23).*

*This was the angel of that conditional covenant which was now established. Therefore while he would make good all God's promises to the people on the one hand, he would on the other punish the transgressions of the people against God. Accordingly we see him after. wards appearing at Bochim, there to avenge upon them the quarrel of this covenant (Judges 2: 1).

The mediator having thus received the book of the statutes of the realm, and the promise of the angel of the covenant, the covenant itself is solemnly sealed. It is dedicated with blood (Heb. 9: 18, 19). The altar and the twelve pillars are raised, and the altar is sprinkled. Then the book of the covenant is read; and, on the people undertaking obedience, they are sprinkled likewise. Thus Jehovah and Israel are joined in the conditional covenant, the blessing of which rested on their allegiance; and the representatives of the nation are called up to eat and drink in the presence of the God of Israel. For all as yet is reconciliation, the blood of the covenant being upon them, and no trespass as yet committed. It was the sight of "the God of Israel" they now get. They may look unhurt and unalarmed. There is no danger of gazing here, as there had been when the law of the ten words was delivered (Ex. 19: 21). It may last but for a short moment, but this is a sample of that day when the God of Jeshurun shall be known as riding on the heavens for Israel's help, and in His excellency on the sky (Deut. 33); when the King shall be seen in His beauty, when Zion shall be a quiet habitation, a city of solemnities, and the glorious Lord shall be there, Lawgiver, Judge, and King (Isa. 33). The glory did not make them afraid, the hand of such an one was not heavy upon them. There He was in all His honour, but they could eat and drink before Him (Ex. 24).

Thus the covenant in which the nation was now to stand is settled, the parties to it bound, and the whole avouched and concluded. Moses is then called to take up another position. And this is done with due solemnity also. His minister, Joshua, accompanies him a certain stage, but he goes upwards to the mount where the Lord was. The glory was still there, as devouring fire in the eyes of the children of Israel, but the cloud covers it for six days. Then on the seventh (expressive, it may be, of the rest into which Moses was now about to be conducted, beyond all the terror of the fiery mount), the voice of the Lord out of the cloud calls him, and Moses goes up into the midst of it, and gets him into the mount. Hitherto he had been either on a level with the people, while the ten commandments, the moral law, was delivered, or a little separated from them as the mediator of the nation, while the statutes of the realm were published. But now he enters into further intimacies with the Lord. He is called to the top of the hill, beyond the region of darkness and thunder altogether. The heads of the nation are left in the camp, the vision of the God of Israel is folded up, and he is called to the very midst of the cloud, where the Lord was dwelling and shining.

But he is not long there before we learn the secrets of that holy place, and how it was that he got there, and in what that virtue lay which could enable him to pass, as it were, all the devouring fire unharmed. He is there in company with Christ. That is the secret. The shadows of good things to come there pass before him, and one by one tell out the glorious truth — that God can be a just God, and yet a Saviour — that He can conduct a sinner safely up the fiery mount, without the smell of it passing on him. For Christ is the end of the law to every one that believeth. God's claims in righteousness are all answered in the person and obedience of Jesus. The brazen altar, with all that intervened from that to the mercy-seat itself in the holiest, is shown, he re to Moses. All pass in review before him. And the minister of the sanctuary, in his mystic garments, is shown, to him also. And thus he learns Christ in His fulness; and, learning this, he learnt how he could stand in such peaceful communion with God beyond the summit of the fiery mount. He saw in Him that mercy could rejoice against judgment; that provision was made in Him, and by, Him, for the discharge of sin, for the magnifying of the law, for the acceptance of the sinner, and for the letting out the full flow of the boundless and unmingled goodness to save and to bless us (Ex. 25 - 31).

All this, however, was to Moses only. The people were still within view of the mount as a mount of devouring fire (Ex. 24: 17). And they speedily show themselves to be material fit for such fire, vessels fitted to destruction, incurring the vengeance of that holy place, by refusing the very first voice that had issued from it. For instead of having none other gods than the Lord who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, they take a golden calf, which their own hands had made, to be their god. This was entire forfeiture of all blessing under that covenant; and in token of that, Moses, on returning down the hill, breaks the tables of the law to pieces, and never puts them into their hands to keep and to do them (Ex. 32).

This was a great moment for the discovery of what man was. O how differently the path of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had ended, the God of grace and salvation, who dwelt in the bush! He had led them forth in entire safety out of Egypt, the place of the taskmasters. Not a dog had wagged its tail against them, not a hoof was left behind, not a feeble person was among their tribes; all harnessed and full-handed they had gone forth; and He never left them, as we saw just now in our previous paper, never forsook them through the droughty desert, till He had planted them in the joy and glory of "the Mount of God." But they then trusted in themselves and took their own way; and all now is closed and disaster and ruin, the very pledges of their covenant, the ground of their confidence, being shattered to pieces. This was sad and shameful indeed. But while we thus mark their sin, we are called to see their repentance also. They mourn on hearing the word and anger of the Lord. They put off their ornaments. They go outside the camp, as conscious that the place of convicted sinners or unclean lepers became them. They watch the ways of the mediator, and stand adoring. And, may I not add, that they feel unable to stand before the bright light of righteousness, so that Moses has to veil his face? (Ex. 33, 34)

All this was repentance, the way of poor convicted, self-condemned sinners. And while they are thus, the Lord is preparing something blessedly suited to them. He makes known to them His secret. Moses delivers the patterns of heavenly things to them. And all that they have to do for their full comfort is to follow by faith this unfolding of God's counsels concerning them. They have only to do according to the patterns, and they shall soon read their title to unmixed blessing. Just like Noah. He had only to build an ark according to God's command, and he should soon find he was building something for his own safety. Obedience was his blessing. And so here. They have but to render the obedience of faith by just giving forms and substances to the patterns as Moses commands, and then they will see in the sanctuary a refuge and relief for guilty sinners destroyed by the thunders of Sinai, as they now were.

And so they do. Blessedly are they here seen rendering the obedience of faith and of a changed mind. They do all for the tabernacle, as Moses commands, and that too with willing hearts, so that he has to restrain their zeal and devotedness. And with all this willingness, there was no wilfulness, for they are careful to follow the patterns in all things that all may be according to God's purpose, though rendered willingly by them.

All this was further proof of repentance. I do not know that in any period of their history we see them in a healthier, happier, condition of soul than now during their making of the tabernacle. The materials were supplied by the willing offerings of the people, and the silver half-shekels which they had paid as atonement-money. These materials were then fashioned by workmen divinely skilled, according to patterns divinely exhibited. And when all was finished, they brought it to Moses; and Moses had but to say of it, that it was good, all according to God, and to bless them. Judgment they reaped before (Ex. 32: 28), but now blessing (Ex. 39: 43). Then after all had been finished for the sanctuary in this obedience of faith, the mediator presents the whole in due form to God, compacted, as it were, and fitly framed together; and then the Lord has only to crown and quicken it all with His presence. The cloud rests on it, and the glory enters into it (Ex. 35 - 40).

And other fruit of repentance continues to be produced, while they remain round "the Mount of God." Thus their waiting on the consecration of Aaron (Lev. 8, 9), their clearing of themselves of the blasphemer (Lev. 24), their dedication of the altar (Num. 7), their surrender of their brethren, the Levites, to the service of the house of God (Lev. 8), their keeping of the passover (Lev. 9), and, finally, their quitting of the mount in holy order, the light and approval of the Lord resting in full satisfaction upon them (Lev. 10): all this evidences their state of faith and obedience. And there is no public trespass committed from the day of the golden calf till they leave Horeb. They maintain their place and allegiance all through, and finally move onward to the land of promise under the unfurled banner of the Lord God of Israel.

Thus it is indeed that the Lord now meets them; not as obedient servants, but as pardoned sinners. As debtors to obedience under the burning mount, they did not stand for a moment; but in His own grace the Lord provides a sanctuary of salvation for them, and there they rejoice as pardoned sinners, debtors to mercy. And how truly blessed their new standing is! They come into vision of things altogether differing from the fire on the hill. The form of something that Moses himself had seen, in regions far higher than that of the lightning and thunder, now fills their vision also. They now get into his secret. If he then stood in peace beyond all the reach and terror of the law, so may they now. Christ in His fulness and grace, and not the law in its judgments, was here. Here was an altar shown to them that could attract the fire from the mount, and let it spend itself on the victim that was there, and not on the people around. Here was provision in God Himself for all the mischief which man had wrought, and all the penalty he had incurred. Mercy was here heard to rejoice over judgment.

This is what "the Mount of God" now tells us; and thus telling of God Himself and His ways, it shows us again its title to be honoured with such a name. Here God first showed Himself in the burnings and thunders of this mount, to tell us of the terribleness of righteousness; but then bore He showed Himself also in the shadowy tabernacle pitched at the foot of it, to tell us of His provision in Jesus to let mercy rejoice over judgment. And thus

He is still declared here. His name is still written on this holy hill, the name of the just God, and yet the Saviour. The tables of testimony, as we find here (see also Deut. 10: 1-5), are now laid up in the ark, that is, magnified and made honourable in the person of the Lord of the temple, while sinners who come up to worship see only provision for their sins in the various furniture of the sanctuary. And if sinners now (as the tribes might have read their names on the priest's breast-place) will by faith only see themselves borne on the heart of Jesus before God, they may know at the same time, to the full repose of their consciences, that the law is there before them. "As he says, "thy law is within my heart." So that the sinner's blessing and salvation is thus kept in closest intimacy and company with God's fullest praise and honour in righteousness. The sinner is borne on that heart in which God's law has been kept and treasured up. These tales of redeeming grace, which are here told out at this mystic mount, are indeed wonderful, beloved. The glory now changes its place. It had seated itself, as we have seen, like devouring fire on the top of the hill (Ex. 24: 17), but now it comes down to fill the tabernacle that was pitched at the foot of it. In its first place it was death to approach it. If so much as a beast did then but touch the border of it, it was to be stoned or thrust through. But now it is life to come up to it. If a poor trembling sinner now do but touch the hem of it, she shall be made whole.

And we may well know the readiness with which the glory thus changes its place. It was its own delight to do so. As our hymn says, beloved, "'Tis His great delight to bless us — O how He loves!" To quit the fiery mount, and seat itself in the sanctuary; to put the place of judgment behind it, and to fill the place of grace; this was its happy path. As afterwards, when it came to occupy the house which Solomon built for it, it took its throne there with full complacency. "Arise into thy resting-place," said Solomon. "This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it," answered the Lord. It was the good pleasure, the desire of the glory, to fill the place. And so when it does come down actually (as we see here, and also in 2 Chronicles 5), it spreads itself, if I may so speak; it stretches itself out as though it Felt itself at home. The holy and most holy places are filled, and its train so flows forth into the courts, that neither Moses now, nor the priests then, could stand to minister.

But what comfort this is to the poor sinner, that the Lord delights to take those paths which thus bring Him into the midst of His people in grace and with blessing; They are not strange or uneasy to Him. And what have we sinners to do, but to let the blessed Lord take His own way of grace with us? It is true that we have, like Israel, with our golden calves, sinned away all right to blessing. But it is as true that the Lord has spread out before us His golden sanctuary, furnished with its altars, its laver, and its mercy-seat, to tell us of His abounding grace, and Christ's victory for sinners. I learn salvation in Jesus from that same word which tells me I have destroyed myself. And there is not a thing in God's sanctuary that does not tell of mercy through Jesus. No trace, no voice, of judgment or of death, is there. And we have to shout, like Israel, at the door of this sanctuary (Lev. 9: 24). And this is faith. Love may bring services afterwards to testify obedience, but faith first tells God of His goodness. The glory has taken its path from the fiery top of the hill to the mercy-seat in the sanctuary; and we have only by faith to follow it — to follow it as simply as it has moved willingly, and thus to meet our God, not in the fires of judgment, but in the dwellings of love and peace.

This we get here in these chapters, and thus read, though in other lines, the title of this mount to be called "the Mount of God." For here God is thus still revealing Himself. Grace and glory has passed before us on this hill in the previous chapters, as we saw — grace in the burning bush, and glory in the assembly of the strangers and Israel. Judgment, and mercy rejoicing over it, have now in their turn passed also before us at the same place — judgment in the fire at the top of the hill, mercy in the tabernacle at the foot of it. And thus the Lord, in these ways and at this place, makes Himself known to us, and Horeb is indeed "the Mount of God."

Thus I have with desire surveyed this holy hill. But I cannot finally leave it till I have another little meditation at the foot of it.

All that we have seen is REVELATION of God. This hill is the place for God's showing Himself. Now our obedience to revelation is faith. If God reveal Himself, faith is man's obedient response. And on faith I would now in closing say a little.

There is a peculiar character of excellence in faith, and no wonder the scripture so much speaks of it. It glorifies God above everything, just because it takes God's account of Himself, and lets Him do His pleasure — "He that cometh to God must believe that he is." Adam ought to have been a believer, for God to him was a revealer. God had revealed Himself in a warning, and Adam should have had faith. But Adam failed in that; and through unbelief, or making God a liar, he sinned and fell.

We now, in like manner, are called to have faith in God, for God has revealed Himself to us also — in another way, it is true. But still God is a revealer of Himself to us sinners now, and we have now to render the obedience of faith. And "without faith it is impossible to please him." Just as with Adam: all his joy in the garden was as worship. If Adam delighted in the flavour of its fruit, the scent of its flowers, or the singing of the birds there, all might be counted as worship. But Adam should have believed also, and his faith would have been the highest act of worship. For the heart would have rendered its service to God by faith or confidence in His word, while the eye and the ear and other senses would have been exercising themselves in the garden of God as in the holy places of a temple,

Thus Adam was called to faith, and faith would have been his best service and worship. Sin having entered does not at all change this. Faith still renders the best service, and performs the highest acts of worship. Only we sinners have other objects proposed to faith than untainted Adam had. Necessarily so. One threat of death was revealed to him. [Not life only but] union with the Christ of God, and all its consequent glory and joy, is made known to us. Our circumstances give opportunity of returning to God larger service and worship, through faith, than Adam's did. If faith gives to God His highest glory from the creature, we, by our circumstances as sinners, being called to larger exercise of faith, have competency to yield larger praise. There is more, much more, in our condition than there was in Adam's to exercise faith. Sin and its necessities and sorrows have induced this. This world is the very place for the largest possible exercise of faith in the blessed God: and if we indeed desired God's praise, we should rejoice in such opportunities of giving Him the worship and honour of faith.

And such an one in this world of ours was Jesus. Without sin, He was made sin. He came into this world of sinners. And how did He carry Himself here? "I have put my trust in him," says He. All through He was rendering to God the obedience and worship of faith. He trusted Him, and trusted in Him. He believed and was confident. Nothing weakened or disturbed His cleaving by faith to the living God. He had laid hold on Him, and nothing slacked His hand. With all against Him, He trusted in God. This was glorifying God beyond all glory that God had ever received. The life of faith which the Man Christ Jesus led in this world was constant worship of the highest order. Angels could never have so glorified Him, or rendered such worship. But that was worship and praise indeed which was brought by the faith of this "wondrous man," in scenes which our fallen world alone could have afforded. For "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It deals with such things as are neither enjoyed nor visible. And it is our circumstances in this world that admit of such most abundantly. Adam has present things to which he might give himself, and through the joy of which he might glorify God, and only one warning or threat revealed to his faith. Angels, too, have their full visible present delights. But the saint is in a world where all that is present is more or less astray from God, and against Him, so that he must go forth from them by faith towards things hoped for and unseen. This calls faith into the most varied and constant exercise, and this makes the saint a competent worshipper of God in the highest order of worship. And Jesus valued this opportunity of worshipping Him, for He loved God perfectly. He waited in such a temple continually. But we (with sorrow may we learn to say it!) want a heart to value God and His praise.

But while we thus look at the principle of faith, grieving that we know it so poorly, we may also look at the object of faith, and there we shall find abundant cause for joy. For God is good,. unspeakably good. God is love. His delight is in mercy, and accordingly that which He reveals to our hearts, or that which He proposes as the great object of faith in this fallen world, is salvation. He offers this to our faith, that our hearts may at once rejoice before Him. The apostle says, "we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle:" a strong testimony to God's salvation, or the object of the sinner's faith. The servants or worshippers in the tabernacle were not made perfect in the conscience. The very place bore witness that the way to God was not then made manifest; and the sacrifices, with which the worshippers dealt continually, kept their sins in remembrance (Heb. 9; 10). For such sacrifices could never dispose of sin. There was no such blood in them as could ever, let it be applied again and again, take it away. But now the saint has a purged conscience, because on his altar he sees blood which has obtained eternal redemption. His altar witnesses remission, and not remembrance of sins.

This is the mighty distance between them. This keeps the worshippers in the tabernacle and the attendants on the New Testament altar, as the apostle tells us, asunder. The one cannot stand in company with the other. To understand the virtue of the altar is of necessity to quit the tabernacle. Assurance of heart in the remission of sins, or a purged conscience, is the due attribute of him who waits on the one, constant sense of sin the due condition of him who serves or worships (λατρεύοντες, Heb. 13: 10) in the other. And this being so, what offering is that which the worshipper at the altar brings? Having apprehended the virtue of the blood there, what sacrifice does he in return pay? The answer comes, "by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually." (ver. 15). Praise is the due fruit of a heart that has learnt salvation, or the value of the altar — not prayer, but praise. A sinner has not prayer to make, but praise to render. A saint has many and many a prayer, it is true; daily weakness and short-coming and necessity lead him that way. But a sinner in prayer denies the value of the altar. Praise suits salvation, and it is as God the Saviour that our altar reveals God to faith.

And what has faith to do but to let the blessed God take His own way, and show Himself in His goodness and glory? The heart that believes is silent before Him while He passes by. He is pleased by this altar which He has raised and revealed to provide for sinners; and who are we that we should stay His hand or narrow the flow of His rich mercies? Let Him do His pleasure: He is the Lord. If the gospel propose to let us sinners see Him in the exercise of unspeakable goodness, it is the duty of the sinner just to look at Him; it is the way of faith to do nothing else. Faith thus in filthy Joshua allowed change of raiment without a question. He never broke silence, but just accepted the blessing and the glory (Zech. 3). Faith in the convicted adulteress was silent while Jesus passed by in the still small voice, writing the memorial of her shame as on a sandy floor, which the next breeze would efface for ever (John 8). Faith in the camp of Israel, as we have now seen, after they had now sinned away all their blessings by the golden calf, followed the patterns which were, one after another, unfolding the pledges of God's salvation in the golden sanctuary (Ex. 35 - 40). All this was faith, which ever lets the Lord take His own way with the sinner, taking His own blessed revelation of Himself without a question, and thus honouring Him above everything, allowing that He has a right to bless even sinners if He please, and us ourselves as well as other sinners.

And this was the voice of the basket of first-fruits (see Deut. 26). On the nation being settled in the land, they were to fill a basket with the various fruits thereof, and offer it before God's altar; acknowledging at the same time that all His promises had been made good, that He had accomplished all the goodness and mercy of which He had spoken to them, of which this mystic basket was now the witness and sample. And then they were to rejoice before the Lord their God, the nation thus simply owning all He had done for them, and all that He had been to them, and that they, poor perishing Syrians in themselves, could indeed rejoice in Him.

And this is just the pattern of a perishing sinner's faith, be he Syrian, Greek, or Jew. We have to lay out our baskets before the Lord. This is faith. Conscience may confess sins that we have done; love may bring services and obedience: but faith tells what God is, and what He has done, in a rich and varied and overflowing witness. Liberty of conscience, joy in God, assurance and ease of heart, hope, largeness of desire, with other exercises suited to a soul consciously brought home to God, these should be the holy fruit to fill our baskets before the Lord. Affections, such as our altar may well awaken, should fill the heart and run over; affections that become pardoned sinners, the due fruit of that land to which the Saviour brings us. This is our "first love," our basket of first-fruits. Ephesus lost it. The fruit in the basket there had withered a little. For let come what other sacrifices may into God's house, this first offering should be always there in its freshness. Faith should always rejoice in what God has done, that thus the first love may be ever young and lively.

But this is far from being the way of the natural heart of man. His mind is not of this order. He clings to the law. Grace is too great and generous a thought for Him. Work, rather than faith, is his master-principle. And this separates between his mind and God's mind. And this principle in man shows itself at times in God's choicest servants. For it is of the flesh, which is in us all. Look at David in 1 Chronicles 17. He thought to do something for the Lord. But in that he wronged God. He did not think so, or mean so, but so it was; by that he was wronging God's love. For shall David be before the Lord in kindness? Shall David be better than God? Will David think of building God a house before the Lord has built him a house? That must not be. God will be God in His love as in everything. He will be better as well as greater than we. And therefore that very night, as though He could not rest under such a thing, the Lord tells Nathan to go and stop this purpose of David's heart. God's love had been wronged by it. The Lord would build him a house first, and then David or his son (in this sense the same) might build the Lord a house. And when David hears this through Nathan, the whole temper and current of his soul is changed. He at once sits before the Lord as a receiver, and does not act for the Lord as a giver. He does not talk any more of building a house for God, but rejoices in the thought of the Lord building a house for him. He leaves Martha's place, and takes Mary's more excellent place (Luke 10: 38).

And this was faith again — faith that ever allows God to take His way and show Himself. What right has man to stop the way of the Lord? Shall he say to the Lord, when the Lord rises to unseal the sources of the river of life, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther"? If goodness will glorify itself, shall unbelief dare to dim it? Who shall close the hand of the Lord of the vineyard, if He be pleased to give the penny? If they talk of law, is it not lawful for Him to do what He will with His own? God is the Lord of the well of life, and may He not turn its streams, if He please, to water the dreariest lands? He owns the springs themselves; and therefore let His rights as such owner be tried and weighed and tried even in the balances of law, and it will be found that it is lawful for Him to use them as He may — He has a right to bless sinners if it please Him.

Faith simply gives Him His rights, and allows the lawfulness of God acting in grace to us; yea, even to ourselves, as well as to other sinners like us. For the less is blessed of the better; and as God justly claims for Himself the place of the better, faith fully owns the claim, and receives the blessing from Him, even the richest blessing, the blessing of eternal salvation, life and glory.

Thus it is faith which chiefly glorifies God, for it sets Him in the place of "the better." Service renders to God, faith receives from Him, and thus faith honours Him in the holiest place that He graciously fills for us. In a sinner walking before Him, in the artless liberty and confidence of faith, God is especially honoured. For "God is love," and to glorify such an one we must be free and happy in Him. Love can be satisfied by nothing less than that. Of course, love knows how to "comfort the feebleminded;" and where is "little faith," it can well come and "support the weak," for it tells us to do so. But still our joy in Him is His will, and even His commandment. The bread of mourners was not to be eaten in the sanctuary; it would have defiled the presence of God, as the offering of an unclean heart would have defiled it. For if holiness become God's house, so do liberty and joy. And it is faith that brings in this liberty and joy, for it apprehends the altar of which I have spoken; it apprehends God engaged for the sinner in a love that is perfect, so as to have nothing in the soul inconsistent with itself, as the bread of mourners would be. It casts out fear, and fills the temple within with its own clear, free, and refreshing element.

May our faith, then, beloved, grow exceedingly! May we know the repose of heart, the silence of conscience, the triumph of hope, and the song of praise in the spirit, which it gives, more and more! The revelation which our God has made of Himself is so blessed, that it is only such a faith that can duly honour it. O that in connection with our subject we were, beloved, more in harmony with the spirit of those sweet words which we sometimes have sung together

"Look forward to that heavenly place,

Beyond the bounds of time and space,

The saints' secure abode:

On faith's strong eagle-pinions rise,

And force your passage to the skies,

And scale the mount of God!"

Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 1 - 4.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

There is much interest attaching to the person of this great Gentile. The place he occupies in the progress of the divine dispensations, the circumstances which connect him with the saints of God, and his own personal history — all contribute to give him a place in our recollections, and to read us some holy and important lessons.

He was the man in whom God set up the Gentiles. The house of David, the throne of Judah, had corrupted itself; the measure of the people's iniquity was full, and the term of the Divine long-suffering was spent in Nebuchadnezzar's day; and he is used by the Lord to be the rod of His indignation against Jerusalem, and the hand to take from Him the sword of rule and judgment in the earth.

The glory had departed. It had left the earth. The prophet had seen it in its gradual and reluctant, but sure and judicial, flight on the cherubim and the wheels, as far as the mountains, on its way to heaven. But though "the glory is departed" might have been written on Jerusalem, "the glory is here" could not have been correspondingly written, on any seat, or city of the nations.*

*The silence of Scripture is at times holy and impressive. I observe this as to the ark. We are not told a word about its fate in the day of Jerusalem's sorrow — it is never mentioned; the theme was too sacred. The ark was the symbol of the divine presence; and the Spirit could not contemplate its captivity, if He could not do so in connection with glorious victory, as in 1 Sam. 4. Therefore we will leave it untraced in the day of Jerusalem's downfall. When next it is seen, it is in heaven. (Rev. 11, Rev. 15)

This Chaldean, however, this Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is set up by the Lord, and the sword is committed to him. Power in the earth, for the punishment of evil-doers and for the praise of them that do well, is put into his hand, formally put there, by God, on the glory forsaking the earth, or the Lord, for the present, refusing. to take His place as King of Israel.

This is Nebuchadnezzar's connection with the dispensational purposes of God. He was glad, of course, to extend his dominions, and to let his conquests be known far and wide, and Jerusalem is welcome plunder to him; but all the while he was filling out the purposes of God. At length his sword is in its sheath, and we see him, not in connection with the purposes, but with the saints of God; and then we get a more personal sight of him, and a subject of still holier interest and meaning. For then we see the man under divine operation, and not merely the power, under divine commission and appointment. And it is this sight which Daniel gives of him in these chapters.

The tumult of war being over, and the sword, as I said, in its sheath again, the king is seen in his place at Babylon. His royal estate he purposes to set off to all advantage. Elegancies and accomplishments, and provisions of all sorts, shall fill his court. Both his greatness and his pleasures shall be served by all that conquered lands can furnish, and the ancient land of the glory is now only one of them. Babylon, famed for its wisdom in its astrologers and soothsayers, shall be set off by some of the captive youths of Judah, distinguished for their understanding science, and skilfulness in knowledge. This is the first chapter.

As it often happens, the Lord comes to disturb him. His heart is moved, if not his estate and condition in the world. Ere he went to sleep, one much-to-be-remembered night, he is thinking on what was to be thereafter. He then sleeps and dreams, and the dream being all about what was to be thereafter, shows that the hand of God was in the whole scene. The king, however, does not understand anything of all this. Even the dream itself goes from him. He has no remembrance of it. It leaves uneasiness behind it, but that is all. Often it is thus with the soul. There is a disturbance, but no intelligence. A restlessness has been awakened; but whence it came is not known, or whither it goes (what is its purpose) is not conjectured. And it is too high for man. It is the hand of God, and mere man cannot reach it. All the wisdom of Babylon is at fault. The dream, the departed dream, which had left only its shadow to scare the heart of the king, is beyond all Chaldean art. This is beautifully significant. We live amid these wonderful shakings, these hidden operations of God with the hearts of the children of men. And when it is with the elect, the work thus begun is conducted to a blessed issue. The man of God, however, gets into the secret. The saint is made to know the mind of God in this great operation of His hand. Daniel tells it all to the king.

Nebuchadnezzar is, naturally, moved to wondering admiration. The knowledge of the prophet is marvellous in his eyes, and all that he can do for him he is ready to do. The wisdom of the God of Daniel he also religiously acknowledges, and, under the excitement, even delights in it. This is the second chapter.

But with all this he is but Nebuchadnezzar still, a mere child of nature, the sport of human passions, and of the devil's wiles. Vanity seems to feed on the communications which the prophet of God had delivered. Wonderful, but natural! These communications had dealt with solemn truths — that an image was to be broken in pieces, and made like the chaff of the summer threshing floor. But this is all passed by the heart of the king, and that he himself is the head of this image, the golden head of it, is all that practically works on him. His pride can get food out of that; but the rest may remain for a future day, however awful it may be.

Accordingly, he sets up a golden image for all to worship. All orders and estates of men are summoned, by musical instruments of all sorts, to own the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Marvellous that our hearts can so deal with God's revelations! God had spoken of an image being broken to pieces, and scattered like the chaff before the wind. Nebuchadnezzar can set up an image to be honoured with divine honours by all the world! How falsely the heart traffics with divine truth! We turn to the present account of our own vanity what connects itself with the most solemn realities. Admiration of God's wisdom will not do. Nebuchadnezzar had that. But with that he was a self-worshipper, and to himself he can sacrifice everything. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the very instruments or vessels for awaking that admiration, shall burn in the fiery furnace if they consent not to fall down before this image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Wonderful infatuation! God, however, is but again displayed. If wisdom belong to Him, so does power. If He can reveal secrets and make known the thoughts of the head upon the bed of the children of men, He can quench the violence of fire and save every hair of the head from perishing, though in a burning fiery furnace. The king is again moved; and he does more than before. He had honoured the servants of the God of wisdom already; now he is for honouring the God of power Himself, establishing His name in the land, and making reverence of Him a part of the business of the state, a standing ordinance of the realm. This is the third chapter.

But what of this? He is as before, only Nebuchadnezzar still — the haughty, self-pleased, self-pleasing child of the dust — man, who, like Adam of old, would be as God. For, after these witnesses of divine wisdom and power, and after the motions which his heart and conscience had passed through, he was, as in earlier days, "at rest in his house and flourishing in his palace." (Dan. 4: 4) He was the same self-pleased, self-pleasing, important king of Babylon.

Nature outlives a thousand checks and improvements. The new wine poured into the old bottle is but spilt. "We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented." The various melody of the dispensations of God is lost on the dull ear of man. But the Lord is not weary. He can still sit at the well and talk with the sinner. He shakes the heart of this king with another dream, and Daniel again interprets it. It is still, however, the new wine in the old bottle, and it is spilt as ever. Twelve months after this solemn visitation, the king walks in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon, and his poor proud heart, after all this, can say, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have builded for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Dan. 4: 30)

Here, surely, is old Nebuchadnezzar still, the "old man" of nature. The divine revelations are spent on him in vain. All the goodly emotions are but as the morning cloud and early dew. The new wine, to be preserved, must be put into new bottles.* And so, at last, it is. Nebuchadnezzar is made a new bottle. Deeply and solemnly is this process conducted, or this work accomplished. The sentence of death is lawfully laid on him. The case is one of great character; and it might well be so, because, as we have seen, the light of the wisdom of God, and the hand of the power of God, had already addressed this man; and the further care and diligence of the Lord had been, in the recent dream, also bestowed upon him; but all to no real purpose. The new wine had been spilt again and again. Nebuchadnezzar is the same man still, and the old bottle is now to be cast away. The former vessel having been marred on the wheel, the lump is now taken into the potter's hand, to fashion it another vessel, a new vessel, as it pleases Him. The story of this operation, as I said, is solemn beyond expression. "Man that is in honour and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish." In honour indeed Nebuchadnezzar had been; but he had not understood, and now he becomes as a beast. "He was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws." Thus is he made to know himself, and to learn the lesson that he was, in all his honour, as brutish as the cattle of the field, having no understanding. The occasion was special, and the display of the operation of God signal almost without a parallel. But if he learn that he "has destroyed himself," he shall learn also that there is One that lifts up even from dunghills; and under the further working of His gracious as well as mighty hand, Nebuchadnezzar revives; he becomes a risen man in due season. The field and the oxen are left, his understanding returns to him, his kingdom and its glory, his honour and its brightness, his nobles and his counsellors, all return to him, and even excellent majesty is added to him. And then, as one of understanding indeed, who had come to the knowledge of God and himself, he no longer thinks of honouring God by state decrees only, ordinances of his realm, but bows before Him as sovereign Lord in heaven and on earth, and publishes His doings. He is no longer the king, - but the dependent. The old thing has passed away, and all is become new.

*The figure of the new wine and the old bottles is used by the Lord after He had been experiencing the resistance of the Pharisees in various ways. (See Mark 2) He had been gracious to the man with the palsy, let down through the roof; but they said He spoke blasphemies. He sat at Levi's table in company with publicans and sinners; but they upbraided Him for want of common holiness, as they judged. His disciples were not fasting, as the disciples of John and the Pharisees were; but again this is complained of. All this was the witness that the new wine had been spilt, the good ways of Christ had been lost on them. They had not contained this new doctrine, the way of God and of grace. His miracles of delivering love and power — His ways with sinners to lead them to repentance — the liberty and joy of His gospel, or the Bridegroom-mystery — all had been lost on them; and from all this (to speak after the manner of men) He learns that man was worth nothing for God; that he could never be a vessel for His praise or service; that he must, therefore, be made another vessel; that the old thing must pass away, and all become new.

A Letter on Neutrality as to Christ,

A Letter on Neutrality as to Christ,

or Bethesda.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 15 p. 25.

Beloved Brother,

I am glad at having received your second letter, and I purpose, if the Lord will, to give it a larger answer than perhaps you counted on. But I do so designedly — for I believe the "Brethren" have, under present circumstances painful as they are, an opportunity of learning some good lessons, and we may, through grace help each other to improve the moment.

For that end and with that hope, it is well to separate our minds, as far as we can, from the personalities and even the acts, which have marked the progress of this controversy, that we may be the more free to look at the principles involved in it. But if you judge that there has been too easy a passing over of certain offences, I refuse not to own (as I said in a former letter to which you refer) that I have indeed been stumbled by some things done, said, and written, which I believe every saint ought to be able to judge, and judging, to resent.

If it be said, in defence of these things, that relative claims are to be postponed when faith apprehends the Lord's claims, I can understand that, and see it largely illustrated in scripture. But I do not understand, that, because Satan is assailed or because a work of the enemy is undergoing exposure, respect to some ordinary rules of good faith and charity is to be denied. I read that, when Michael contended with Satan, he did not bring against him a railing accusation.

One from whom for more than twenty-five years I have learnt much of the mind of God, long since said to me, "Take care you do not correct the flesh by the flesh." Had this been remembered by us all in the progress of this sad controversy, we should now have to rejoice in results instead of mourning over them.

And it is not only that wrong things have been done; opportunities of good have also been hindered and lost. A sifting has been going on, I would not deny. But in the progress, some have not had the skill of a Master's hand. Has there been that "gentleness," that "patience," that "meekness," in instructing, which the Apostle enjoins, even where a work of the devil is distinctly owned? Has there been his required "absence of striving?" (2 Tim. 2.)

I am quite ready to say these things, and to ask these things, dear brother. But still I say, I would rather that we could consent to lay this aside for a time, and look together at what through God's grace, even this occasion (grievous though it be) may afford us and bring to us a blessing. If there were in each and in all a readiness to discover and confess one's own measure of wrong, a harvest might be and would be reaped. And from the letter of request lately written to B- from brethren near London, I cannot but hope that this readiness does exist.

Yon ask me to answer one or two questions as to what my conduct would be, were I in certain places. I do not like the language generally of either threat or resolution; nor do I find that I am as yet equal to say what would be the course in many cases which might be suggested. Here in Dublin we are speaking together, and desire to do so patiently, not listening to hearsays or charges, but considering principles of action, with God's mind in His word about them, as far as we have grace to discern it.

To deal however, with principles in the abstract, or as at a distance, is a different thing from dealing with persons and places long loved and cherished. The affections get at once engaged. I should not, for the present, lightly seek many places which I could mention to you from this feeling; greatly longing for a time of restitution among us, and willing to escape from the necessity of acting, if I may do so, without foregoing clear duty or service.

You tell me, there are precious saints at B-. Sure I am of it, dear brother, and can recall happy moments of the Lord's presence, times of refreshing, as we speak, between their souls and mine. Would there were an open heart in all to let in the flow of these sweet remembrances! For sure I am there are many misinterpretations, and in a thousand instances confidence is deserved where now it is withheld.

And further I say as to B-, let acts be allowed to cancel acts. If prejudice were not at work among us, this, I believe, would be readily allowed. If B- at the beginning were slack in judging the evil doctrine, her subsequent dealings with it may be received as restoration or repentance. Common grace and candour would (under ordinary circumstances) be pleaded for as much as this. And I could indeed say, Oh that this candour and grace were in exercise! But still, on the other hand, I would expect that B, on her part, would be ready to act further than she has, if uneasiness remain as to the real value of these ulterior acts of her's in the minds of any. If her faithfulness to the Lord be still questioned, let her add zeal, and revenge, and clearing of herself, to what she may have already done.

This is not too much to expect from either side.

But acts, dear brother, are not the only ingredients in the case. There have been standards lifted up. And B-'s standard puts her on wrong ground. I am sure of it. Principles avowed by public writings, after the most solemn sanction of the whole assembly, are (in my eye) standards. And these writings are not to be cancelled by acts or by any private communications.

They must be cancelled by writings of equal dignity with themselves. If the assembled brethren sanctioned them, let the brethren be assembled to annul them, with confession too of the error they were betrayed into. I allude to the "Letter of the Ten." And I say further, that if that letter but seem to admit that doctrines which involve reproach on the Lord Jesus may be carelessly passed by — if it but seem to admit that communion may be held with places defiled by such doctrines, let me ask you, dear brother, ought it not to be renounced with indignation? Ought not private injuries to be forgotten, that this service may be done in a way worthy of it? But my present purpose is not with B-. They are surely not only at liberty but bound to act to their Master. But as my late letter, to which you refer, has led to no action on their part, I am not appealing to them again. A letter from an individual, though printed, is no act of the assembled brethren, such as the case asks for. My business therefore is not now with them. But I have a purpose and a desire towards others who are truly dear to us all.

There are, as you know, (because you refer me to them) other public writings as well as this "Letter of the Ten." They are called Memorandums or Statements put forth by the gathered saints of some different places, well known to us and long loved and cherished. I invite you to look again at those writings for a little. I lament them very much, for they are hindering restoration. Be sure of it: negative ways are not sufficient in moments of general alarm and suspicion. Defective statements ought to be remedied; they hinder restoration. These writings do not, I know, give us all which the brethren in those different places would set forth, if they saw the need. I want them to see this need. The anxiety and diffidence which have been raised demand a heavy pressure to allay it, and these writings only increase it. They are direct stumbling-blocks in the way of restoration.

They do not give pledges that anything more than christian fellowship is proposed. Read the Declarations for instance from Tottenham, Torquay, and Taunton. They are not the voices which would naturally break forth from church-ruins; and nothing other than such voices ought to be heard in these Declarations. I do not say we need them at all. But if we get them, let them be such. Evangelical brotherhood, or christian association, will not meet (as you happily express it) "the instincts of the living stones." No, indeed. Those instincts desire "the spiritual house, the holy priesthood." If these Memorandums come forth in such an hour as the present amongst us, let them avow the peculiarities of the church. The moment demands this, and any thing less than this will be a stumbling-block. It is not like one's infancy of twenty years ago. Questions are now raised which had no place then. Fears and suspicions are now awakened as to the principles of our common ways in Christ. The time is important to the edification and health of our gatherings, and calls for more consideration than those writings give it.

I greatly desire the dear brethren would review them. One letter from a kind-hearted brother (well-known among us) seems to speak as though false doctrine were not matter for the action of the gathered saints, wrong practices being their due concern. I know you are not of this mind, and I know not where I am, if such a thought as that is to find place among us. We might well open our eyes, not with admiration but with amazement and sorrow, and ask, "what manner of stones and what buildings are here!" Weak though we be in more senses than one, still we are to be as decided as John himself in shutting the door in a given case — as fervent as Paul himself in purging out leaven; and though but a church-ruin, we are still to do the duty of the church in being a pillar of the truth. Those Memorandums or Statements (to say no more) do not avow right principles, while (in a very important article) the "Letter of the Ten" is inconsistent with right principles.

It is this which led me to say (to which you refer) that they were not as guilty as the Letter from B-. They were put forth, I do not doubt, simply to meet a moment of peculiar character, and seem to take independent ground; and, as I said before, they do not, I know, adequately present the mind of the brethren who signed them. But I desire that the stumbling-block may be taken out of the way. "Cast up, cast up the high way," dear brother, "gather out the stones, lift up a standard for the people." These writings are stones to be gathered out, I am sure. They hinder our travelling together "the high way." The recalling of them would be a gathering out of stones, and lead (I have hope) to the lifting up of a standard worthy of the people of God in this day. I dread a fixed and adopted separation among us. Efforts ought still to be made for a restoring of gatherings one to the other, and for their finding themselves in an advanced position. It is terrible to contemplate a permanent breach.

Thus have I taken upon me to speak to you, beloved, but designing it to be in the hearing of those brethren who have put forth those writings, and indeed of all the brethren. For it is my thought, as I have already said, that we have an opportunity now of growing together, if heat and pride and the spirit which brooks not delay or opposition do not work to spoil us of it.

And here I will consider something further with you, which this matter has suggested to me.

I am aware that some are hindered by the fear that we are abandoning our former ground, on which the thoughts of "the church being in ruins" had put us. But this is not so.

Connected with this, let me remind you, that Israel, after their return from Babylon, was Israel still. They had not the ark, the glory, nor the Urim; nor did they affect that to which such things were needed. But they fully recognised themselves as God's Israel. As far as they could, they did the services of such, and behaved themselves as such; but they never did anything in any other character, or what was inconsistent with that character.

This is much to be remembered. Did they, I ask, bring home with them the customs of the heathen? "The latter house" was not what "the former house" had been, and the old men wept; but, as far as conditions allowed it, the ways of the two houses were alike. They never brought in the customs of the heathen; and, as simply and surely as ever, they took knowledge of themselves as the Israel of God. Their circumstances were changed. They were in ruins. Their fair things and their honourable things were spoiled. They were subject to the Gentile. But they were Israel still. This was their principle. And accordingly, as soon as any thing was discovered inconsistent with that, it was judged. You remember the case of intermarriages, and the more pertinent one of Nehemiah avenging the act of Eliashib who prepared a chamber for Tobiah the Ammonite in the house of the Lord.

They owned their circumcision, their separation to God, as jealously as ever. They refused Samaritan brotherhood, while they were debtors to the patronage of the Gentiles, and were partakers of their bounty. Horonites, Ammonites, and Moabites, were the same to them as ever they had been.

No glory had entered the latter house, as it had the former. This may have tried their faith. The Ark had not been preserved for them, as in another land of Philistines, nor had it returned to them as in victory from another temple of Dagon. It was lost to them. This may have tried their faith also. Nor had they their priest with Urim and Thummim. Thus were they in ruins, shorn of beauty and strength; and some of their brethren were still in Babylon. But in the presence and midst of all this, they avow themselves to be God's Israel as surely and simply as ever. They allow of nothing inconsistent with "the former house," they well knew and were constrained to feel, that they had not all its glory in "the latter house."

This is for us, dear brother. We are, in our way and measure, to be "stewards of the mysteries of God," and that too, under the holy sanction of being "faithful." And neither love' sake, nor brotherhood' sake, or any other impulse, is to prevail with us to forego the services which attach to so precious a stewardship. The peculiarities of the house of God are to be our peculiarities; and though we own Israelites in Babylon, we are not to own Samaritans or Chaldeans in Zion. Nor are we to own ways unworthy of Zion in a returned captive, though we see him the witness of ruins and of weakness.

This theme is worthy of our thoughts; and I confess I desire all our dear brethren to take counsel upon it. Would that they were to do it together calmly and in love

I own saints (to be sure I do) where I cannot see church-ruins, as for instance in the Establishment. The Establishment is not a church-ruin. It is an important thing in the earth, which must scorn the idea of ruins. Nay, it denies the church in her very first element; for it has not gone to Christ as a Stone "disallowed of men," but has linked His name with the government and men of the world. But God's dear people are there.

But even, when an assembly is not of that earthly and important character, and takes a lowlier bearing, yet it may not be a church-ruin. I must still inspect it, whether or not it own the peculiarities of the house of God.

Christendom is not to be mistaken for church-ruins. Christendom is as "a great house," which I must judge — the few who call on the Lord out of a pure heart form the church-ruins where I must be found. (2 Tim. 3.) And it is a holy question for us, beloved; — "Are we upholding merely christian fellowship? or are we dwelling, according to the holiness of God, within the precious precincts of a church-ruin?" In a time of growing intelligence and social advancement as the present is, when long peace among the nations has given great play to the skill and speculations of man, and when the religion of the human mind has been cultivated and respected, it is needful to remember, with increased care, that the truth of God and the house of God have their blessed peculiarities; that not one of them is to be sacrificed to the morals, the politics, or the religion of man; and that we are not to mistake for them what man produces, be it as good as it may. Ruins are weak things; but still they tell of the original building. And so, in our present weakness, we must still tell of the peculiarities of the church.

In the truth or mysteries witnessed by us — in the nature, subject, and purpose of our discipline — in the ways and ordinances of the assembly — in the whole process of our common edification, the peculiarities of the house of God must be seen. I avow ruins as simply as ever. But if it be necessary, I add, that they are church-ruins, unlike either the old Roman temples, or the buildings of the philanthropists or Reformers of this our day.

Farewell, beloved. Do not blame this letter as a mere protracting of a painful discussion. Is it not better to be patient with one another, or (if it seem so) to protract discussion, than to sit down contented with our divided state? I remember the same brother (to whom I have already alluded) also saying to me some long time since, that it was a terrible thing to be indifferent about those with whom we were ever joined at the Lord's table.

May he, and you, and I, and all of us, cherish this godly sentiment, now that a trial has come upon us.

Let our dear brethren at Tottenham, Torquay, and Taunton, read this letter; I mean to send a copy to Bath. Indeed I should be glad if all saw it; and if we could but get our hearts exercised together, so as to meet again in an advanced position for our common blessing in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ever yours, beloved brother, J. G. B.

New Creation

New Creation.

J. G. Bellett.

(Allan, 1871)

There is a deeper purpose and nobler work in God than creation. Creation occupied His hand, and displayed His power and Godhead, and was then, in some sense, left at man's disposal, so that its condition was to be determined by the allegiance or rebellion of man. But there was another work ordered in the counsels of God before the world, to be accomplished in due time, with which God joined Himself, and thus never suffered it to fail. This purpose and work are laid in and effectuated by the Word, who is with God, and is God. The opening of Genesis shows us the work of creation, and creation entrusted to man; the opening of St. John shows us the Word, who was before creation, and the work accomplished by Him. Blessed joy to look at either Himself or His work! May our souls now taste this while doing so. It is grateful to the heart to turn that way when wearied with self — with man and his doings — with the world and its vanities. The living waters then, as it were, recede to their native bed, for such indeed is the action of the Spirit in the saint when he retires to God and His Word. The new mind finds its home there.

I would follow this work of redemption or New Creation by the Word through a few meditations which lead the thoughts of the soul that way. But it is not the effort of mind even on Scripture which I desire to trust, but the more artless confidence that can follow where His Word and Spirit lead, remembering the while assuredly that the diligent soul shall be made fat, and that Paul has counselled Timothy to meditate on these things.

_____________

Our meditations, then, on New Creation may lead us, in the first place, to the subject of sin. St. Paul treats it in a very lively and energetic style in Romans 5, 6. He gives it a kind of life and office, as it were; treating it as a person and as king. He shows us that it entered this world through man's disobedience; and, having entered it, at once took the seat of government, and death became both the power and character of its kingdom.

And this is the aspect of "this present evil world." It is the place or scene of the reign of sin and death, and nothing is left untouched by its influence. Such has been the entrance, and such is the present power of sin in this world. But there is another action in this same world, as our apostle further shows us — of which the grace of God is the source, as the disobedience of man has been the source of the presence and reign of sin. And this grace through Christ has brought in righteousness and life; as disobedience in Adam opened the door to sin and death. And having entered, the apostle shows us still further that righteousness does more than merely measure the power of sin, for sin came in upon one offence; but righteousness comes in, and sweeps away from the scene thousands of offences which followed in the train of that one, and accordingly it has its kingdom now also. Life has its action here as well as death, but it is not visible like the other. The reign of sin is felt, and the power of death is seen all abroad — the reign of righteousness which brings life with it, is as yet only known to faith. But grace is triumphant — it has brought in a gift, a righteousness which asserts, through Jesus, its supremacy over all the aggravated power of sin and death. And how was this? How could grace thus take its way? How could righteousness and life enter a scene *here sin was reigning unto death, and had title so to reign? Our apostle shows us that a victim has been provided by grace, and rendered up to the claims of sin. Sin reigned unto death. Death may bound his empire, but up to death he has title to exercise his power. And Jesus, the Son of God, has owned his title — "He died unto sin;" He took the penalty — He received the wages of man's departure from God. —  "In the day thou eatest thou shalt die." Man did eat, but Jesus also died. And thus Jesus owned the rights, and yielded to the exactions of sin. He had to do with it in His death. He was then dealing with it — righteously bowing under its dominion. But all the while He was the Son of the living God. He had life in Himself, life untouched by Adam's disobedience; and thus He outlived the stroke of sin, and destroyed him that had the power of death; and asserted a kingdom of righteousness and life, in which, not only He reigns, but all those reign with Him who, by faith, rejoice in His victory.

Thus sin and death in their dominion are overthrown. The Son of the living God has asserted His supremacy in the very region of the power of sin. Sin has reigned unto death — even to the death of Christ on the cross; but there sin was met by righteousness — there death was abolished by life. All that sin could command, and that was death, it got there — there it exacted death of Jesus; but Jesus carried a life in Him which remained untouched by all this, and in that life, and the righteousness from whence it flowed, He and His saints reign for ever together.

Thus has sin been disposed of. It entered and reigned, but has now been set aside; and we have not to own if in any wise, but to be dead to it. For we are in union with the Son of God, and as His death was "unto sin," His resurrection was "unto God." As it is written, "In that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God;" and our union with Him being in resurrection as well as in death, we are thus "alive unto God," and should so account ourselves. We should assert our places in the risen Son of God, and know that we are dead to sin, our old man being crucified, and that we have nothing more to do with it. Sin may seek to have to do with us, but we are to reckon ourselves as dead to it — to see it as sunk in the flesh — as deposited in that pit out of which we have risen in Christ, separated from it, leaving it to perish in its own corruption; and, in the faith of our place in Christ, to say of it and all its workings in the flesh — "Yet not I, but sin that dwelleth in me." Sin was once a king, as we have seen, reigning unto death, and using the members of man as the instruments of its power, but now faith apprehends it as imprisoned in the flesh, sunk in that pit where all shall perish.

__________

We are thus introduced to thoughts on the flesh thus in close connection with sin. And the Scripture teaches much upon it, showing us clearly, as indeed our last meditation might lead us to anticipate, that the saint has entirely renounced it. May it be so more and more in our conduct, beloved, as it is thus fully in our calling.

The flesh of Jesus, I judge, carried in it the real enmity between Jew and Gentile, inasmuch as it was the only flesh that was ever really circumcised; or inasmuch as Jesus was the only real Jew who ever lived — the only child of man that ever really separated or consecrated the human nature to God, keeping in Himself the "law of commandments contained in ordinances." And thus in Himself He separated flesh from all beside, and that was the true "partition wall," the true witness against all else that was of man as uncircumcised. (Eph. 2)

But His flesh — or flesh in such a One — is now gone. We do not know Him after the flesh. All His perfectness in it led Him to the cross, contributing with other personal worthiness to His fitness to die there for us. But having now died there, His cross is the end of all flesh. That cross was endured for us. It was the wages of sin that was in our flesh, and slew the enmity that was between God and men accordingly.

But something beside or beyond flesh is therefore to be looked for now, and so we find it; for now Christ is found in resurrection, and Jew and Gentile are equally and together presented to God as spirit, or as New Creation "a new man in Christ Jesus" — "one body" — the body of their risen Christ. The law had previously come to seek something good in the flesh - to get out of it fruit unto God. But it found none. The Son came, on the other hand, not looking for good in it, but to make atonement for it — to hang on the cursed tree as the representative of it. ( Rom. 8) Paul had in his doctrine accordingly done with it altogether. Could he return to it when he saw it thus disposed of by the Son of God? He could not. He saw it to be a mighty wreck — it may be as yet not entirely buried out of sight., or gone to the bottom — but He was no longer in it, but in the risen Son of God. He had been cut on a new world, where God's eye rests with delight for ever — he was in a new creation with the risen Son of God.

And if he had done with the flesh, he had done also with the law; for they were one, as being bound together — the old husband and wife, as he speaks in Rom. 7. The law — with its strictures, and forbiddings, and demands — was as the ropes and tacklings, and the rudder-bands of that which, as I have said, he had now left as a wreck, and if the vessel be behind him, so is all the provision.

And as he would not glory in his own flesh, neither would he in that of another. If he were crucified to the world, so was the world to him. And it is, indeed, edifying to observe the strength with which he renounces the flesh. There is nothing which the flesh has incurred, or is exposed to — nothing that it possesses — nothing that it can do — that he does not declare his escape from or renunciation of, in fullest strength and confidence of faith in Jesus. Thus, is the flesh subject to condemnation? Yes, but Jesus has borne the judgment of it, and the believer, through grace, is not regarded as in the flesh but in the spirit — it is not he who does the deeds of his own condemned flesh, which is thus exposed to judgment, but it is "sin" that dwells. in him (Rom 7, 8). Has the flesh its religion? He counts it all as loss and dung — its ordinances and observances, and legal circumcision; its bonds and fears he renounces, and is found only in the righteousness of God by faith. (Gal., Phil., Col.) Has the flesh its wisdom? Yes, the world has its princes — the wise, the scribe, and the disputer  - but Paul insists that God has made it all foolishness, and desires only that wisdom which the Spirit alone could search out and reveal, and which no eye, nor ear, nor heart of mere man could converse with (1 Cor. 1, 2). Has the flesh its excellency of speech and other advantages which ministry of the Word might use? Yes, but he would use none of them; but as he was a minister of the Spirit, so would he be a minister in the Spirit only (2 Cor.). Thus *he escapes from it, or renounces it in all its pretensions and in all its exposure. It was an attempt to revive the wisdom of the flesh, or the power of the flesh in ministry, with which he had to contend at Corinth; and it was an attempt to revive the religion of the flesh, which he withstood in Galatia and at Colosse. But he put no confidence' in anything that was of it. He was not in it, but in One who was raised from the dead. He was in Christ, in New Creation or the Spirit He had his justification in the blood of the Son of God and his personal graces and ministerial powers in the Holy Ghost, and there only. And this glorious act of faith, which thus leaves the flesh — in its condemnation, its religion, its endowments, its everything — behind us, is our strength in standing against its lusts and its tempers; for when such arise to tempt the soul, the soul should gird itself with this remembrance, that we have done with it altogether. And the same thing is our strength in walking in the charities of the gospel, for it accustoms us to look at that which is of the flesh in our brethren (and which is the trial of our Christian charities) as not being properly themselves, but something which they have in real principle renounced.

And it has struck me from Gal. 1: 13 to 16, that St. Paul tells us that God's great purpose by him was to give proof of the profitlessness of the flesh in its best estate, and of the entire renunciation, accordingly, by the divinely taught soul. For after there showing his advantages in fleshly religion (as he does also in Phil. 3), he tells us God had "separated him from his mother's womb," — then "called him" — then "revealed His Son in him" — by which separation I judge that be means his election to be the minister and representative of a gospel that was not to allow any conference with or confidence in the flesh at all; and accordingly all his previous life — before he was actually called to such ministry — had been a gathering together and exhibiting of advantages in the flesh, that now he might make a more glorious renunciation of them. Hence he was born a "Hebrew of the Hebrews." Hence he was "circumcised the eighth day." Hence he "profited in the Jews' religion," and persecuted the church through fleshly zeal. Hence he was "touching the law" blameless. All this had marked the man who had been separated from his mother's womb, and thus fitted him for showing out afterwards the vanity of all that was fleshly; so that when he was actually called into ministry to do so, he might be able to tell us how much in it, and of it, he had had — that his renunciation of it might be the more marked. It was like the fitting of the vessel for the 'glory it was destined to carry, or the instrument for the work it was ordained to execute, so that we might be able to see that if flesh in Paul was nothing, flesh in any other. must surely be nothing. Paul was apprehended to make the greatest attainments in it, that he might renounce it altogether, and thus expose its utter and certain vanity. And I would here notice two instances in our Lord's ministry, in which He, in like manner, strikingly denounces the flesh.

John 3 — He sets the flesh aside in the words, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," because He connects with this the need of man being born again of water and the Spirit. John 6 — He again sets the flesh aside in the words, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." And from His conversations on these two occasions with Nicodemus and with the multitude, we learn how we are to renounce the flesh, and that is, by learning God or Christ as sinners. Neither Nicodemus nor the multitude came to Jesus as sinners, and therefore He had to tell both of them of the worthlessness of the flesh.

And this leads us to this most needed and precious lesson very simply and very surely. It is the sinner who comes to Jesus as such, under conviction of sin, that renounces the flesh. Happy, simple, and precious result for our souls of all this needed primary truth — the worthlessness of the flesh and its consequent renunciation — that the way to attain this truth is to learn God as sinners.

Our death is the judgment or end of the flesh  -  - "the body is dead because of sin." There is judgment afterwards, but that belongs to God, and is the trial and condemnation of the secrets of the hearts, or according to man's works, as written in the Books; but of flesh or fallen nature of man, as injured and tainted by disobedience, death is the judgment: the flesh perisheth in its own corruption.

_____________

As connected with this which we have just meditated on, I would now for a little consider the law.

The law addresses itself only to the flesh, for it has dominion over a man only so long as he liveth. But as in the flesh dwelleth no good thing, all the application of the law to it only serves to bring out increased evil. This is Romans 7. It is like cultivating a piece of ground which has only noxious seed in it; the more you manure it, the more abundant harvest of thorns and thistles you get from it. So the more exact we are under the law, the more actually are we cast at a distance from God. St. Paul seems to have this thought in Phil. 3. All the features of his former condition, or when he was under the law, or in the flesh, were in his favour, or to his praise. He speaks of them as being so — and among these was his zeal — a right zeal under the law, but directly contrary to God, for it exercised itself in persecution of the church.

For zeal under the law must exercise itself against the church — for the church lives in grace. Zeal in the flesh must exercise itself against the church, for the church walks in the Spirit. And thus the more praise Paul had from the law or the flesh, the more was he in collision with God. It is quite true that there is a certain using of the law which is, on the other hand, according to God. Thus Zecharias and Elisabeth walked in all its ordinances and commandments blameless. But that was owning of it simply as God's dispensation for the time, as the school-master, till faith came. That was according to God. But taking up the law as the thing, threw Paul (and must so throw all who do it) into direct enmity with God and His purposes, and into a denial of His truth; for it denies the corruption of the flesh, the grace of God, and God's purpose from the beginning to act on promise. It exalts man: it nourishes that nature of which the truth says, "In it there dwells no good thing." And all this did Paul when under the law, so that when be was enlightened and came under grace, his estimate of himself was altogether changed; then he says of himself that he had been a blasphemer, a persecutor, the chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1). Then he learns the value of his former gains — that they were all loss (Phil. 3). They had been advantages in the flesh, but the flesh being evil, the more it is advantaged and nourished, the further are we from the good. And this good thing he Row learns is only. in Christ, in the Spirit., or the new life; to nourish and exercise which became from that moment his one great care and business (Phil. 3).

In Romans 7, to which I already referred, the apostle, as it were, entertains the claims of the law upon the believer, and he shows that they have been already answered and disposed of. And he does this very simply. He says that the authority of the law addresses itself only to a living man — that is, a man in the flesh. It is the flesh, or man as born of Adam, that the law was given to. But the believer has ceased, in this sense, to be a living man, has ceased to be of Adam, inasmuch as he has died and risen again; and consequently, being a dead and risen man, and not a living man, the law does not address its claims to him — he is not the object of the law.

But in this the law is not spoken of in the same relation to us as sin had been. Sin had been spoken of as a master or a king, but the law is here spoken of as a husband. And in the close of this chapter, having thus shown how that both sin and the law have been disposed of or set aside the one as a master, the other as a husband — the apostle tells us they have been discharged with very different characters indeed. Sin has been discharged with as bad — the law with as good a character as ever the inspired pen of an apostle could write for them. All evil in us is. declared to have come from the one, while from the other nothing flowed but that which was holy, just, and good. And the moment the real character of the law was understood by the quickened soul, a grievous state of things arose: the commandment came — sin revived — and the man died. The law was felt to urge one thing upon the conscience — sin was felt to exact another thing in the old man or the members — and this state of things drew forth the sense of death in the soul and cry for deliverance; and the answer came in Jesus, revealed in the power of His death and resurrection.

Thus the law, coming to act on flesh or man in moral corruption, was found altogether unequal, through the inbred, essential evil that was there; and rather aggravating the mischief by showing sin also as transgression. It has been disclaimed. The Lord has disclaimed it as His instrument; and the believer, who stands in the mind of the Lord, has disclaimed it as his confidence, and Christ has come, the instrument in God's hand instead of the law, and the object of the believer's confidence instead of it also.

Man, and the law that acted on him, being thus put aside, God is introduced into the scene, and His instruments and ordinances. And as thus introduced, I desire to look at God for Himself a little moment, as Scripture may blessedly show Him thus in the gracious service of poor ruined man.

God is that glorious One (not to speak of Him merely in Himself, or in creation and providence, or amid the powers and thrones of angels) who has resources for our need, and remedy for our mischief, though we be those helpless sinners which the law has proved us to be. To carry such in Himself is His prerogative, and our owning it by faith is at once His praise and our blessing. It is as such He is proposed to faith. It was "God Almighty," that is, God the all-sufficient One, that was revealed to the Patriarchs. Abraham and Sarah were dead as to their bodies; but I am the "Almighty God," says the Lord, and their faith owned it. "I have resources to meet the dead state of your bodies." was the language of God, and His servant bowed his head (Gen. 17).

This was claiming divine glory on the one hand, and giving it on the other. And as the reverse of this, the apostle charges some with not having "the knowledge of God," because they questioned the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15: 34). For such questioning showed that they had not apprehended God as God — that they had not given Him due divine glory — otherwise they would have believed that He had resources even for a state of death, as Abraham did. As the Lord before condemns the Sadducees on the very same point, as not knowing the power of God (Matt. 22: 29).

We are thus to give God His honour; we are not only to refuse our confidence to any beside, but we are to give it Him. Just as in Israel. It was not only that the land was to be cleansed of idols and groves, but a house or tabernacle was to be raised to God. Idol deities were to be removed, but the one true God Almighty was also to be brought in. It would not have done simply to clear the land of abominations without also bringing in the true glory, and so exactly with us now. We are not only to flee idolatry, but to become true worshippers: we are not only to refuse our confidence as sinners to all beside, whether to our works, or our penances, or the church, or righteousness of man of any kind, but we are to give our confidence, as sinners, to God. We do not know Him or worship Him as God, if we do not apprehend Him as worthy of that confidence, as One who has resources in Himself for our condition, though it be like Abraham's, a condition of death, even of death in trespasses and sins. For God is One who can meet all necessities. That is His divine glory. A mere convicted sinner may have cleared the land of idols the thought of saying himself by the law may be hateful to him — he may renounce it with all zeal Like the sword of Joshua, he may go from city to city, and from king to king, and demolish and kill all that he finds in the land. But it is only the believing sinner that finishes Joshua's work, by putting the tabernacle of the Lord at Shiloh; and thus, while Ashtoreth and Baalim are removed, Jehovah is brought in — the full and worthy honours which are God's are given Him.

To come short of this is really to come short of knowledge of God. It is for God the apostle pleads in 1 Cor. 15. It is not for the Father, nor for the Son, nor for the Holy Ghost.. The rights and honours of each of the Blessed Persons in the Godhead, the apostle, as instructed, knew how to maintain in their due place. But there it is God he pleads for — and that is the highest thought in some sense: and accordingly he touches, in the holy argument, on the closing dispensation of "God all in all." The glory that first broke out is. seen at the last. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." "When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, that God may be all in all." But with this ineffably, inconceivably excellent advantage, that in the march of this glory, from the beginning to the end, it has unfolded and displayed itself in such ways as are never to be forgotten; but which the rather have left their traces, their indelible traces, behind them for ever.

The glory has passed before us, showing itself to us increasingly in its progress; and when at the end we see it, the glory still, it is as having thoroughly opened itself, so that we may enjoy it in all its fulness, in its inner parts and secrets, through the eternity of the new heaven and the new earth.

And I might refer to Gal. 4: 8 as giving this view of God, that the disciples there, by returning to observances, and in that way sustaining their confidence as sinners, were showing that they were leaving God and the knowledge of Him, because, if known duly, they would have seen that He had all that was needed by them even as sinners, and that days and months and years would therefore add nothing to them.

We all come short, sadly so, for our own soul's joy, in this knowledge of God according to His revelation of Himself — which is the only true or divine knowledge. He is of unspeakably blessed perfections, and most glorious is His goodness. He is love, as we read; and, therefore, every defect or mistake in the understanding of Him must reduce our joy and blessing, for love secures them to perfection.

The glory and delight of God in the works of His hands do not result so much from their own proper excellence, or because they display His handiwork. But His glory and delighted are rather in them, because of their either imparting or receiving blessing; for such are the delights of love.

Thus the heavens, with the sun running its course through them, glorifies and delights Him, chiefly because they set themselves forth in blessing to the earth. And they are called His "witnesses," because they give the fruitful seasons which fill the heart with gladness.

So the church. It is not the gifts of His Spirit as displays of His power, but as serving His saints, and edifying them in light and comfort, that forms His value of them and delight in them. Accordingly St. Paul, carrying the mind of God with Him, says, "I would rather speak five words with my understanding — that I might teach others also — than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." Tongues were more the exhibition of power — prophesying for the edification of the saints — and the apostle, having the mind of God, did therefore value the latter. And the nearer we are in spirit to God, the more we shall find our delight thus in blessing. Look at Gabriel. He stood "in the presence of God." In what character then did he come forth from that presence? As the messenger of glad tidings to the earth (Luke 1: 19.)

So the Beloved. He dwelt in the bosom of the Father. in what character and for what end did He come forth from that bosom? To give Himself up to the death of the cross for the rescue and life of sinners.

The nearer the Son the Beloved lay, the brighter was the expression of love or of God. The bosom was a place more intimate than the presence: and so was the death a richer expression of God than the message. But all this, and the like to it, abounding in Scripture, shows us God. God is love — and His glory, or the ways of His showing Himself, are accordingly. They are ways of blessing. All that properly came from Him — be it from the outer courts of His presence where servants wait, or the sanctuary of His bosom, where the Beloved lay, the divine, eternal Son; be it in the gifts of His spirit in the church, or in the works of His hands in creation — all in their divers measures and glories come forth to tell of Him in blessing, to reflect His person in diffusing fruits of liberty and gladness around.

Thus we reach our God in divine understanding. And it is very blessed thus to see that the knowledge of God once associated itself with the certainty of our own blessing, so that to be without "hope" is to be without "God" (Eph. 2). And to refuse salvation, that is, not to obey the gospel, is the same, and will be judged the same as not knowing God (2 Thess. 1). GOD IS NOT KNOWN when the gospel is preached, if that gospel be not received by faith or obeyed. But all this is blessed. It casts the soul, as it were, on the necessity of blessing. God must be given up otherwise, for to know Him is to know blessing from Him.. If I refuse the salvation of the gospel, I refuse God. I am without God in the world. If the soul has apprehended Him, it has apprehended One who blesses. And thus, as Scripture teaches, to know Him is life eternal (John 17: 3) To know Him more and more is only the increasing communication of grace and peace (2 Peter 1: 2). Sad it is, that He, being such a One, our souls have such short, and cold, and weak tales to tell of Him.

_____________

God is thus led up to our thoughts as acting in a fallen world where man had been found out by the law to be helpless as well as evil. It now becomes us to look at the way and action of the blessed God in such a world, and for such a creature as man, and that has been, and is redemption.

Redemption is God's principle in this world. Creation was for redemption, and not redemption after creation — because in counsel the Lamb offered Himself before the world was (Ps. 40, Heb. 10). And the saints are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1). And in the garden of Eden itself, before the transgression, in the sleeping man, and the woman taken out of him, there was, the type of redemption or life drawn out of death (Gen. 2); and the moment sin entered, the secret of redemption was published (Gen. 3: 15).

But beside all this, Leviticus 25, which is the special Scripture upon redemption, shows us, as I have observed, that redemption was God's principle; for there we are taught that neither the people nor the land could be sold for ever, but always subject to redemption, or, as we say, by way of mortgage. And if the Israelite had no kinsman able or willing to redeem him or his land, the Lord Himself would redeem both in the fiftieth year or year of jubilee. Thus it is clearly apparent that redemption is God's principle. But what does it imply? The paying of a price, a full price for the thing or person sold. The purchaser of an Israelite, or of his possession, was to have the full money weighed out to him ere he could be required to restore the man or his land to the kinsman. The Scripture shows in like manner, that our glorious kinsman (the God of heaven and earth, manifest in the flesh) has by Himself paid the full price of our redemption, paid the debt that lay upon us and our inheritance. For in the balances of the throne of God (where righteousness was seated) the price was weighed, and weighed with the nicest hand, that no wrong might be done to any one through man having sold himself and all that he had by his sin. And thus Scripture calls Jesus a redeemer, in the sense of this glorious chapter on redemption (Lev. 25). He visited and redeemed His people. And the price that He paid was His blood, or Himself. "He gave himself a ransom for many ransom for all — to be testified in due time." "By his blood having obtained eternal redemption for us." "Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood." And many such passages tell us.

And the scales of the throne of God tested the weight of this price before it was paid. They had before tried the weight of the blood of bulls and goats, but they found all such blood to be light and insufficient. But when the blood of God's own Lamb, God's divine Son, was put into that balance, which was thus held by the hand of Him that sat on the throne, Who judges right — the balance stood, the will of God, the Great Creditor, was satisfied. And by the satisfying of that will we are sanctified (Heb. 10). By the payment of that price our persons and lands are repurchased by our glorious Redeemer or Kinsman.

I do confess, to touch the doctrine of repurchase or redemption appears to me to touch the dearest thought in the mind of God, for it is, as Lev. 25 blessedly shows us, as I have said, His own principle. And why is it so dear to Him? Because it glorifies His love, that is, Himself, above everything; for it shows such a way of self-sacrifice in God, that though this ransom, this price of redemption, demanded the Son from His bosom — the Isaac — yet the Isaac was delivered.

And what comfort to the conscience to know that the full price has been paid. What comfort to a poor redeemed Israelite it must have been to know that his creditor, to whom he had sold himself, had been paid the uttermost farthing of his demand by his gracious Kinsman. The heart gets comfort from knowing that God's love was gratifying itself in the work of our redemption. But the conscience gets ease from knowing that God's righteousness has been honoured and secured, that the demand of His throne has been fully answered. And the adequacy of this price of our redemption is variously witnessed to us. I would exhibit the testimonies to it thus:

(1.) Before the world began it was fixed on at such a price in the covenant. Its sufficiency was even then recorded in the volume of the Book." (Ps. 40; Heb. 10)

(2.) From the beginning of the world it was pleaded at such a price, whether shed on the altars of the worshippers, or put on the lintels of the houses of the redeemed (Gen. 3: 8.; Ex. 12). And as such price it was owned of God.

(3.) At the end of the world it was offered on Calvary, and then in the rending of the veil God publicly owned (as before in the volume of the Book He had secretly or in counsel owned) the value of His blood as the ransom or price of redemption.

(4.) It is now preached by the Holy Ghost in the gospel as such sufficient remission of sins (Heb. 10: 15)

(5.) Finally, through eternity, its simple value is to be our praise. And thus is the price of our redemption variously witnessed to us. God delighted to own it, it is true. He was glorified in this well-settled purchase: His love was gratified also. The heart, as led by Scripture, may indulge itself in all these blessed thoughts and assurances. But I speak now only of the value that the soul finds in looking at the blood of Jesus as the money or the price paid down for our ransom. The conscience gets its desire from that fully answered. As such price, I again observe, the blood is to be trusted. And as such price it is called the "blood of the everlasting covenant," being that consideration — full, adequate, well ascertained and settled consideration — on which the covenant stands; which ratifies it, therefore; which gives it its character of being at once a holy and yet gracious covenant, a covenant preserving the holy rights or righteousness of God, and yet providing abundant grace for sinners. "This is the new covenant in my blood." No other blood could do. That of bulls and goats had been tried under the law, but it was found light and inadequate. And let me add, that no thoughts of God's love are to interfere with the demands of His righteousness. These demands must be answered, as they have been indeed in this redemption of sinners by the blood of Jesus. God's love. it is true, is without measure. But that love is not a mere emotion, a mere sentiment that can exercise itself as it will. It is rather that which, at an unutterable cost, provided redemption for the guilty, a righteous ransom for sinners. Love in God was that which sat down and counted the cost of making sinners its object. If we think of love, without believing the provision it made for the demands of righteousness, we are dealing with a sentiment of our own, and not with the blessed revelation of God.

But this rather by the way. I have here principally been considering redemption as that which marks God's purpose, and is the principle of His action in our world. It was His counsel before the foundation of the world, and will be celebrated in the praise that is to surround the throne. for ever and ever.

But in the Scriptural, character of redemption there is more than mere repurchase or ransom. In the ordinances of Israel a redeemer was a well-known personage, and his services, as set forth under the law, were various:

(1.) He had to ransom the person or land of his brother if sold (Lev. 25). This I have been noticing.

(2.) He had to avenge the blood of his brother if shed by a murderer (Num. 35).

(3.) He had to raise up seed to his brother if he had died childless (Deut. 25).

Our blessed Lord Jesus fulfils all these duties, having in grace made Himself our Kinsman, by taking on Him the nature and the cause of the "seed of Abraham," though "God our all":-

(1.) He has ransomed or repurchased both us and our inheritance, which had been righteously forfeited to God by transgression, paying the full price, weighing out the uttermost farthing to his most just demands upon us, not indeed in silver and gold, but in His own most precious blood. (See Acts 20: 28; Rom 3: 24, 25. Eph. 1: 7-14; Col. 1: 14; 1 Tim. 2: 6; Heb. 9: 12; Heb. 10: 14; 1 Peter 1: 18, 19.)

(2.) He avenges us on all our enemies, regarding us not as debtors (as in the previous case), but as injured, and as such standing up to judge our wrongs upon them that are against us, whether it be sin the devil death, or hell. (See 1 Cor. 15: 54-57; Col. 2: 15; Heb. 2: 14.)

(3.) He quickens us or raises up seed to His brother — rebuilds His kinsman's house, by making us children of God again — a seed which Adam never produced, creating us anew, giving us to be the sons of God, which the flesh never did. (See Rom. 9: 8; Gal. 3) And this is all. These things contain deliverance, life, victory, justification, and all we need; whether we look to ourselves dead in sins, but made alive to God, to God, whom we have wronged and offended, or to the devil, who has beguiled us. This doctrine of a Redeemer is the ancient religion — the only religion from the beginning — to unfold which, in all its incidents and results, is the great theme and purpose of the Book of God.

Thus the Redeemer is the great personage in the Book of God from beginning to end. His work sustains the praise of God for ever. He was revealed long before the law, and has now survived the law — for we are now "dead to the law," but shall live to Him, as we live by Him, for ever.

_________

This notice of the Redeemer has presented Jesus, the Son of God, to us as Repurchaser, Avenger, and Quickener. Such, as we have seen, were the three characters and duties that belonged to the Kinsman or Redeemer under the law, and which meet all our necessities. But our meditations now must lead us to the quickening spirit, or to Jesus, the Kinsman, building up. His brother's house.

At the beginning Adam was the channel of life from God to that family whom God had set up as His image here, over the works of His hands. But sin entered, and death by sin. Then came forth the promise of the woman's seed, who was not only to have His own heel bruised, and to bruise the serpent's head, but also to become the channel of life to man now dead in trespasses and sins. And accordingly, by faith, Adam calls his wife "the mother of all living," thus owning that the dead sinner must now find life in a newly constituted fountain. Adam, as God's creature, becomes unfruitful to God, and the woman's seed is revealed to faith as the channel (or source) of life.

From that moment faith apprehends this mystery, and looks for life, not to the flesh in Adam, but to the woman's seed. According to this is the mystery of the barren wife, of which we see so much in the Scriptures. Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, the wives of three leading Patriarchs, all belong to this class; and their barrenness, healed by the mighty power of God, sets forth the mystery of life received, not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God — of God, not acting through Adam or flesh, as at the beginning — but in His own way of sovereign grace and power, as through the woman's seed. This is very simple. Hannah, in after time, rehearses the same mystery. So Elisabeth in the times of the New Testament. But at length the true seed of the woman is manifested, begotten indeed as the woman's seed, in the simple, sovereign energy of God, so that all His types now appear to have been but faint resemblances. For it is not a barren wife receiving strength to conceive seed, but a virgin — the new thing in the earth  - "a woman encompassing a man" — a woman alone getting seed, according to the very first promise.

This is the new source, the new channel of all life. Jesus, the Son of God. God manifest in the flesh. The word made flesh. The Lord from heaven made the Second Man, and as such "a quickening spirit," out of whom all life is now drawn — the flesh being dead in sin — cut off from the living God.

The first man had been "a living soul." The Second is a "quickening Spirit." The first had a life subject to death, or subject to be cut off from all communion with God. The second carries a life which has triumphed over death and all its power. The first was of the earth, the second is the Lord from heaven. The first was but natural, the second is spiritual.

And thus all that live by Him (Jesus) are spiritual. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." He is not a living soul, but a quickening Spirit; and His nature gives character to that life which He communicates, as Adam's earthly nature would have given character to all that derived life out of it, had it not corrupted itself; and as now dead in sin, it gives character to all flesh, which is still taken out of it, and accordingly corrupt and dead as to God.

Thus the Son of God is the "quickening Spirit," not the Holy Ghost, but Jesus the Son. The Holy Ghost afterwards dwells in the new creature, but that new creature is "in Christ," having derived its life out of Him who is the quickening Spirit. And that which is born of the Spirit being spirit, a distinct principle of life in us, it has its due actings, its own proper faculties and affections. Thus St. Paul speaks of serving in the Spirit (Rom. 1: 9); living and walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5: 25); understanding in the Spirit (Col. 1: 9); having strength or faculty to comprehend in the Spirit (Eph. 3: 17); having a conscience in the Spirit (Rom. 9: 1); living in the Spirit (Col. 1); having bowels in the Spirit (Phil. 1: 8). These are a few instances wherein the Spirit is owned as a principle of a distinct life, the spring of its own peculiar faculties and affections; as it will, by and bye, be also the life of its own peculiar and united body (1 Cor. 15: 44). The sleep is evidently only of the body. (See 1 Cor. 15: 51, 52.) For then, the spirit, that which has already been detached from the corruptible body, and gone to Jesus (Acts 7: 59), will take up and seat itself in the glorious body.

This is a blessed truth, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." As one has said, "The person of every believer bears the image of the two Adams." The image of the first Adam is wholly sinful, as Adam was. The image of the Second Adam, distinctly considered, is wholly righteous, as Christ is. This new life, drawn from the Second Adam, Christ, "the quickening Spirit," is spirit, the new creation, the new man, the inner man, the divine nature in us, life of the risen Jesus, which the Holy Ghost can own as His temple, to form, and fill, and nourish, and so strengthen with His own might, as to give it to stand in the battle with that which is still in us of the old Adam.

____________

Thus do we see our own creation in Christ Jesus — and this meditation leads us to another on the Holy Ghost, which I would now for a little pursue. As soon as we become spiritual — or one spirit with Jesus — as joined to Him, we become such as the Holy Ghost can own. And in this age He does so own us. For it is the Lord in us whom He thus owns, and Him He can own, of course, everywhere. He could never  own or adopt the flesh — and the law never took us out of the flesh — but the word of grace unites us as one spirit to the Lord. Nay, the Holy Ghost did not acknowledge flesh in unfallen Adam, for Adam was not a temple of the Holy Ghost. But He can own even a poor sinner who, by faith, is one with the Son. An individual body He owns, just because He finds the Lord there (1 Cor. 6: 17-19). Our collective bodies or the church He owns, because, in like manner, He finds the Lord there (Eph. 2: 20, 21). He makes both of these His temple, — dwelling in them because the Lord is there in this age.

And thus the believer is not only "spiritual," as being by faith "one with the Lord." but he becomes a "temple of the Holy Ghost." The Holy Ghost enters and dwells in Him. Then the Spirit bears witness with the believer's spirit (Rom. 8: 16). His own spirit tells him he is a child, because, by faith, he is one with the Son of God's love. And the Holy Spirit joins in this testimony, because He has entered us as owning the Son in us, and thus in us cries or breathes out, "Abba, Father."

But even this "indwelling of the Holy Ghost is matter of revelation. as well as our oneness with the Son, or our being "Spirit." Therefore it is neither to be prayed for nor experienced, but believed. Sweet and refreshing, and purifying fruit of this indwelling will surely be known and enjoyed; and that more or less as we walk in holy diligent cultivation of the spiritual mind and in our communion with God. And that will be our experience. But at first we are not to put the soul, to any effort to experience the indwelling of the Spirit, but to believe the revelation that He does indwell. And the happy way to reach experience is simply to have faith in the revelation. And it is, moreover, on this very ground that our responsibleness arises. We are all debtors, under this age, to walk in the Spirit, just because we have the Spirit. Believers in old time were not thus "spiritual" A prophet, or the like, may have been called "spiritual" while the Spirit was in him to prophesy, but that was far different from being "spiritual," in the sense of being indwelt by the Spirit for constant though varied need of the soul.

From all this we gather that the Spirit is imparted by the word of the gospel — that "word" is the seed of new or spiritual life in us, and is received by faith; and then the Holy Ghost comes and dwells in us thus spiritual, or one with the Lord. And this shows us there is connection, but not identity, between the "word of grace" and the Holy Ghost. The word of grace gives liberty to the sinner, purifies the conscience, makes us one with the Son, and thus prepares us for the entrance and indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

All the elect have been born of the Spirit, have derived their life unto God from the woman's seed, the head of the new creation. But not till Jesus, the Son of man, was glorified, did the Holy Ghost dwell in the elect, as now He does. He was given occasionally, at all times, to God's servants, for official service and testimony (Ex. 31; Num. 11: 27; Deut. 34; 1 Sam. 10; 1 Chr. 28; Neh. 9). That was. however, different. For then, according to the order and notice of Scripture, the Holy Ghost was still in heaven, as in Isaiah 48: 16, but now dwelling in, and given to, the saints. He is owned by the same Scriptures of God as on earth (Acts 2: 18; 18; Eph. 4; John 14: 16).

______________

Our meditations thus conduct us through great things of our God, which, however, we must not dismiss till we look at resurrection, which, with its results, is to be the great presentation of the blessed and wondrous purpose of our God.

God's secret I judge to have been resurrection from the beginning. That which He graciously calls "my covenant" was established on that principle. It shows itself in God's dealing with Adam. It was intimated by the very first promise of the woman's seed, for that was something above nature, above flesh and blood. It was, as the prophet calls it, "a new thing in the earth." And though the Son of God became the woman's seed by incarnation, yet, in the mighty results of that, and in the character of the Bruiser of the serpent's head, indeed in all that we now enjoy, either of His person. or His work, it is in resurrection we know Him. As the apostle says, "Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we Him no more." And accordingly we are now, even in this first promise about the woman's seed bruising the serpent, to have respect to Christ in resurrection, for there, and there only, the full fruit and issue of that bruising is to be enjoyed. And afterwards resurrection is connected with God's secret or covenant in His dealing with Noah. "The end of all flesh is come before me. Make thee an Ark of gopher wood." Here again resurrection was God's relief or resource when He took cognizance of the utter corruption of all flesh in His sight. For the ark was the chariot of God's salvation conducting Noah out of the old into the new creation. It was plainly the symbol of death and resurrection. "Every thing in the earth shall die," says the Lord to Noah, "but with thee will I establish my covenant;" thus revealing the secret that His covenant, His purpose touching this creation, was to establish it in some condition after death had ruined it, or on the ground of resurrection.

So in His dealings with Abraham. Abraham was to have a son and an inheritance on the same principle. He and Sarah were without children, and without so much ground as to set his foot upon. But he was to have a seed as numerous as the stars, and an inheritance that was to stretch northward and southward, eastward and westward. And this was all called "God's covenant" with him, again plainly telling us that God's purpose, or secret, or covenant, rested on resurrection, rested on the setting aside the flesh in its strength and resources, in doing something beyond and above nature, which is the same as resurrection, or the quickening of the dead and strengthless body of Sarah. And accordingly Isaac is born out of the dead bodies of Abraham and Sarah. With Isaac is God's covenant. Ishmael may be blest — as he is — but with Isaac, and Isaac alone, is the covenant, plainly again telling us that God has taken resurrection as the principle of His action, the ground of His counsels. Man may receive blessing in nature, it is true, and in the divine overflowings of goodness such Ishmael promises are enjoyed every day, but the covenant is with Isaac. The real abiding and sure blessing is all, not in nature, or mere flesh, but in resurrection.

And the inheritance comes in the way of resurrection as well as the seed or heir. It lay under the bondage of corruption for a time. It was in the hand of the Amorite while he was filling up the measure of his sin. But then it is rescued from such a pit of corruption. It passes through its baptism or circumcision. It, and all its fruits, go through a process of sanctification. Like a leprous house, it is cleansed by the dead and living birds, and thus, as in resurrection, it is fit for the people who were in covenant with God; a risen inheritance becomes a risen people, and Canaan was thus a sample of the whole creation, which is now as dead in corruption, but to be raised in glory (Rom. 8).

The dispensation of the law then takes its course. But it was not God's covenant. It was man's covenant, because it took flesh and blood for its principle. It was flesh and blood, or the strength of the natural man which is addressed or operated on, and thus it was man's covenant and not God's. But it ended in the full conviction that man could get no blessing from it.

God is then manifest in the flesh. The Son of God becomes incarnate. In His own person He stands untainted. He renders to God a beauteous offering of perfect human fruit. Flesh and blood in His person was the loveliest piece of creation God ever looked on. It was indeed a meat-offering, an unleavened sheaf out of the earth. But it must be set aside ere the head of the serpent can be bruised by this promised and precious seed of the woman. Not, however, set aside like flesh and blood in all beside as worthless, but set aside by a meritorious death, that by death this woman's seed might destroy him that had the power of death, the old serpent who had brought death. And such is the end of flesh and blood in the Son of God. And therefore, in it, we are not to know Him any more. We are to know even Christ Himself now as dead and risen (2 Cor. 5), the Lord of a. new creation, up to which He has won His way by fully meeting all the penalty which the old creation has incurred; and in which new creation we (by faith in His atonement and victory for sinners accomplished by His death) stand with Him, a dead and risen people, the true circumcision, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

And I cannot close without alluding to a blessed instance of the Lord retiring to thoughts of resurrection as His relief, when He looked on the end of flesh. I mean in His visit to Jerusalem. (See Mark 11) He came down to Jerusalem. He looked on man then as of old He had looked on him in the days of Noah. But all was evil. And He said of it, represented in the barren fig tree, "No fruit grow on thee henceforth for ever." And having pronounced this doom on flesh, even in Jerusalem, the most favoured nursery of it, He went out to Bethany. And what was Bethany but the witness to resurrection? There Lazarus was, who had actually been raised; and there Mary was, who had the faith of the resurrection. So that Bethany was the same relief to the thoughts of Jesus now, as the Ark of gopher wood had been to His thoughts in the days of Noah.

And touching all this, faith is our duty. For faith takes us into God's counsels about the covenant. Faith says, as God says, "the end of all flesh is come before me," and resurrection, the Ark of gopher wood, becomes the believer's object or resource, as it is God's. It is the thing we look for, as it is the thing that the blessed God has purposed and promised. And thus faith takes us into God and His secret. Precious faith, we may well call it, that thus takes us up in spirit to that light in which the mind of God dwells, and in confidence to that work which God has accomplished.

And precious hope which carries us beyond the present Ishmael blessings of nature, and gives us desire for the inheritance in resurrection according to God. Creation is but the avenue or ante-room Without faith in resurrection "the power of God" is not known (Matt. 22: 29), "knowledge of God". is not attained (1 Cor. 15: 34), for creation did not, show God fully — but redemption, leading to resurrection, does.

But ere we leave this mystery of resurrection, I would look at the mind of the Spirit in 2 Cor. 5, as connected with it.

There is, I believe, in the opening of that chapter an allusion to the tabernacle and the temple, which were successively the dwelling-places of the Ark. The tabernacle conducted it through the wilderness, and it was a temporary thing made of clothes and boards, all liable to be soiled and tom, and broken in their passage. The temple in due time received it in the land, and then it entered its abiding place, which nothing could move or injure. And this temple was just as costly to the eye as the tabernacle had been unattractive. The tabernacle had appeared but as a dirty badger-skin house, for all the glory was then concealed, but the temple now appeared full of magnificence to every beholder. "See what manner of stones and what buildings are here."

But withal, they both contained the very same ark. It was conveyed from one to another, as being the chief thing round which all else, be it unsightly or glorious, gathered. And so with us, as the Apostle here intimates. We have the earnest of the Spirit, we have life of God in us, life from Jesus, the quickening Spirit, and the Holy Ghost Himself dwelling in us — and this is the great thing after all. This is as the ark, to which all, whether tabernacle or temple, was but secondary. This is the present glorious tenant of our vile body," the earthly house of this tabernacle by and bye to be the glorious inmate of the "glorious body, the house of God not made with hands." The same ark, the same Christ, the same Spirit. And by this God shows that He already owns us as decidedly or simply as ever He will. "He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God." God has put His hand to us already; God has got His own interest or kingdom in us even now, just as God had appropriated the tabernacle to Himself, unsightly as it was, as surely as He afterwards did the beautiful temple.

And this is the simple joy of faith, that God has already laid His hand on us, and put His glory in us, so that it is His interest and His care to preserve us, according to which the Spirit given is "the earnest," as He is here called.

And in passing through these verses, the apostle, I judge, glances at Adam as created. "Since that, being clothed, we shall not be found naked." Adam was naked. His nakedness, it is true, expressing his unconsciousness or innocency, but expressing his exposure or liability also; for, being only a creature, he was open to the assaults of the enemy. But when the saint reaches the house of God, then it will not be nakedness or exposure, but clothing and security. Then it will not be a mere creature, but a creature thus enclosed, as it were, in God's own workmanship, he himself wrought by God for a house built by God. And being thus clothed, there will be no nakedness, no liabilities any more. It will not be Adam again. And from this our apostle seems to draw a great inference. In ver. 16 he says, "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh." He had surveyed resurrection. He had looked in spirit at the temple in contrast with the tabernacle. The eternal house in contrast with the earthly house. He had owned God as the builder of that temple, and as the Giver of the Spirit to dwell in it for ever. He had longed for the clothing of glory as something far beyond even the nakedness of innocency. And under the light and sense of all this, he now loses sight of flesh or old creation. He cannot return to it. He has seen "a glory that excelleth." He has seen resurrection or new creation in Christ, the Son of God, outshining all the old thing as begun in earth and in flesh. He cannot look again at flesh; yea, Christ Himself in the flesh has been outshone by Christ in resurrection. Christ in flesh had been lovely, it is true, the loveliest piece of the old creation that had ever been presented. It had a glory — as the law had a glory — but like the glory of the law, that glory of Christ in the flesh was now outshone, and the apostle had turned from it to the "more excellent" glory. Paul, as it were, could give up Christ in the flesh, when he got this view of resurrection.

And having taken before us this place, having shown himself in this attitude of soul, he shortly tells us the main character of this object that was now filling his vision, the feature of this new creation in the Son of God, which was now spread around him. That it was a grand system of reconciliation, devised and perfected by God Himself; by which, even now, the rebellious might enjoy in spirit a full return to God through Jesus, and walk before Him, not in the distance, and darkness, and death of their own condition in sin, but in the light and liberty, the assurance and joy of his own righteousness.

This was the Present aspect of the new creation, by and bye to be perfected in that state of resurrection to which he had been before looking, and the light of which had, as we saw, led him to these present thoughts. And such will be our eternity, shining in the righteousness of God with glorious bodies; living, moving, and having our being, not in Adam or flesh, but in Christ, and in glory. And at last there will be the new heavens and the new earth," the former things will all have past away. Even the kingdom will be given up, and God" will be "all in all."

He that sat upon the throne said, "Behold I make all things new."

The New Creation

The New Creation.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend 1899 p. 53.

(This meditation is from an old note-book which has been sent to us by a beloved brother, and from which we hope to make extracts, God willing, as occasion serves.)

The twelfth and following chapters of John's Gospel were prophetic when they were written. Not so now. What was then anticipation is now realized. What was then in anticipation was the risen life — the new creation.

Now if we look at John 12 we shall see a fine principle which introduces this thought. In that chapter we get the risen family as a sample of the new creation. The new creation is what we enter into when conducted by the Spirit of God. The same thing is taught doctrinally in 2 Corinthians 5 — "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." If I am in company with God, I am in the new creation. Angels, Adam in innocency, men under law, were never in the new creation; but when a poor sinner is brought into it he is in a new order of things; and this the apostle Paul doctrinally teaches.

Now in chapter 12 we see the Lord Jesus in company with that which is a sample of new creation. He is seated at the table with Lazarus, a type of the risen family, and his sisters, in sacred family enjoyment. In verse 12 we find the people were not prepared; they seek to do Him honour in an earthly way. And in verse 20 the Greeks come up, desiring to see and salute Him. And how did the Lord treat it all? He let it pass, though it was the most palmy and flattering moment in which He was ever greeted and saluted by the world. He passed it all by; it was nothing to Him. How little you and I do that! We love to welcome such scenes; we love the delight of flatteries, of rank, and royalty; we are not dead to the Hosannas of the people, the salutations of the Greeks — they are so attracting. But to Him it was nothing. His heart is full of anguish, and elsewhere, during all this, He pours it out to His Father — "Father, now is My soul troubled." He is passing on to the new creation for us; for your title to the new creation would never have existed without the shedding of His blood. The new creation is the omnipotency of the blood of Christ Jesus for us. No wonder, then, "His soul was troubled" when on His way to such a moment. J. G. B.

Nothing But Christ

Nothing But Christ.

J. G. Bellett.

from  Musings on Scripture, Volume 1.

The Epistle to the Hebrews calls us to leave all for Christ. Whatever be the objects in which thus far we may have gloried, it is necessary to abandon them now, and to receive in their stead Jesus the Son of God. Angels give place to the Son: Moses, the servant of the house gives place to Christ, who is the Builder; Joshua, the ancient captain, that led Israel into Canaan, gives place to Christ the Captain of salvation who is now conducting the children to glory; Aaron, the carnal and dying priest, gives place to the true Melchisedec who lives and serves in the heavenly temple for ever; the old covenant gives place to the new which Jesus administers; and at the same time the old carnal or earthly ordinances give place to the spiritual and efficacious ministrations of the heavenly Priest; finally, the blood of the victims gives place to the blood of Christ offered by the eternal Spirit.

Such is one of the principal characteristics of this divine and glorious Epistle, which thus annihilates all that in which man puts his confidence, in order to establish the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, as the object of glory and only refuge of poor souls.

But this was a doctrine hard to bear, particularly for a people such as the Jews, who had in so many ways put their confidence in the law and legal righteousness. Amongst us also at the present day when, amidst so many religious forms, men propose with authority other foundations of confidence than Jesus, and other men blindly receive them, we have to consider carefully what are the bases of this doctrine. In these days, when all creation groans, the soul thirsts after this simple gospel which preaches to us the perfect satisfaction of Jesus; and it is the design of the Holy Spirit in the Epistle to the Hebrews to unfold to the eager soul the reasons for which it can thus embrace Jesus as all that forms the object of its confidence and glory. This Epistle declares what authorises it thus to appreciate Jesus — to estimate Him as having no equal — to judge that He is in a word the one and only stay of the poor sinner.

But how does the Holy Spirit assure us of this truth by this Epistle? How does He show us that it is our own salvation to leave every other prop in order to have none but Christ alone for our stay? He shows it to us in the only way in which it could be done, — by presenting to our soul the appreciation which God makes of Christ.

That which warrants the value I am to attach to Christ is that God has already before this made known to us the worth which He possesses. If my soul confides exclusively in Him, I cannot be grounded in so doing but by seeing the foundation of Israel's confidence at the time of the blood-sprinkling in Egypt. God had prescribed this blood: such is my divine and sure-warrant; and the Epistle to the Hebrews assures it to me. It speaks to me of the high value God sees in Christ; it tells me how clearly, simply, and exclusively He has laid upon Christ all that can relieve the soul. Such is the reason why this admirable Epistle lingers with so much complacency upon Christ in all His present relations with us, in all the ministrations He accomplishes for us. There is what explains the numerous quotations (Heb. 1) which establish Jesus far above angels; there is what explains the glorious commentary which Heb. 2 gives on the dignity of the Son of man, the declarations of His great superiority over Moses,

(Heb. 3) the abundant and varied testimonies (Heb. 4) borne to His priesthood, supplying in quite another way that wherewith Aaron had been honoured or what the law conferred (Heb. 7). There is the reason why He is represented as anointed and consecrated by an oath, and seated in the heavens in the midst of the sanctuary, as well as at the right hand of Majesty (Heb. 8).

In all this we have the hand of God Himself exalting the merit of Jesus, weighing Him in His dignities known in heaven and on earth. The soul is invited in the most pressing manner to come and be present at this grand work, at this divine proof of the merit of Jesus. Just so the congregation of Israel was commanded to wait at the door of the tabernacle, in order that each for himself should contemplate and know how pleased with the priest God was; so that each, however large the congregation was, should have personally, individually, all liberty to resign himself to the care and intercession of Aaron (Lev. 8, 9). It was a matter which concerned each individually; and the same liberty should also appertain to every one of as individually.

The soul is a thing which concerns ourselves; for it is written that "none can by any means redeem his brother:" and it is ourselves who should know the divine remedy, ourselves who should possess it. It is not a faithful brother who can hear and believe for us; it is not a church which can represent us; we must be at the door of the tabernacle ourselves; we have ourselves to know the worth of Jesus in the eyes of God, and the Epistle to the Hebrews is commissioned to reveal this secret in the holy of holies. It is addressed, not to a certain order of privileged persons, but to us all, in order that there we may gather the blessed fruits of this ensured supply which has been stored in Him. It is not the question in this epistle of a particular church, nor of a class of privileged persons, as is very often thought and said; but it is the voice of the Spirit addressing itself directly to the soul, in order that it may learn to know for itself Him in whom God has placed the help which is necessary to it. In this Epistle, our soul breathes, in some sort, the perfume of the plain which the Lord has blessed, and faith breathes the perfume of Christ; it enjoys Christ as God Himself enjoys Him and we have the divine light in our hearts, we are converted from darkness to the light of God. In a word, God becomes our own.

There is yet another thing in this Epistle: it makes us understand in what characters God has set this exclusive value on Christ; and these characters are such as fully answer to our necessities. The victim or the sacrifice, Hebrews 9: 14; the priest, Hebrews 7; the prophet or teacher, Hebrews 2: 1-4; the captain who brings His own to glory, Hebrews 2: 10; and in all these qualities, as in each of them separately, we see Him estimated in the most exact manner by the hand of God, and we find Him perfectly what it is needful He should be, for persons so wretched as we are. According to God, Jesus is a victim perfectly suited to purify, a priest perfectly suited to intercede, a prophet perfectly suited to instruct, and a guide perfectly suited to transport us safe and sound unto glory. There is that precisely which we need. This Epistle traces our book of travels, in leaving our place of exile as sinners, up to our dwelling in glory, where we shall be in the companionship of Jesus. Yes, we clearly read there our rights, and we rest on Jesus as our Victim, our Priest, our Prophet, and our Guide, because God has given Him all that is possible of worth in these qualities with which He is endowed for us, and God has appreciated Him because of His work, because of His person, because of His obedience, because He has shed His blood and fully accomplished the will of God for us. There, in this Epistle, the soul may read its titles, not according to the estimate which itself makes of them, but according to that which God makes of Christ.

Patriarchal Faith

Patriarchal Faith.

J. G. Bellett.

Section 8 of: Musings on Scripture, Volume 3

The patriarchs had come forth from the place of nature or of the flesh, in the faith of a promised inheritance in the land of Canaan. And what is to be noticed in the strength and victory of their faith is this — they cling to that promise, in spite of two very severe trials of it: that is, in the face of the poverty and sorrow and disappointment which they constantly experienced in the place of the promise; and also in spite of the desirableness and attractions and advantages which they enjoyed outside of it.

This is much to be observed; and it may be encouragement to us in such a time as the present.

There was a famine in Canaan in the days of Abraham, and again in the days of Isaac, and again in the days of Jacob. Abraham, moreover, witnessed in that land the abominations of Sodom, and the common strife and contention of the potsherds of the earth. Isaac is forced from one spot of it to another by the injurious treatment of the natives of that land. Jacob is forced out of it by the threats of his brother Esau. And further, it was the scene of humbling and of discipline to each of them in their day, by reason of their own evil ways in the sight of the Lord.

Such was Canaan to the patriarchs. They were, I may say, dishonoured and disappointed, and well nigh heart-broken in that land of promise. But that which lay outside it was altogether different. It was just as attractive to them as Canaan had been trying and humbling.

Egypt, for instance, enriches Abraham when Canaan had left him at death's door; and to Jacob the same Egypt had become the scene and the occasion of all that heart or flesh could have desired; for he came to the end of a weary pilgrimage in that land. He had known plenty of sorrow in Canaan, both before he left it for Padan-aram, and after he returned; but Egypt at last made up to him, and much more, for all his losses and sorrows. By royal grant he received the fairest and richest portion of it. He was honoured and cherished there, and saw his family in increasing prosperity around him. The desires of his heart seemed all to get their answer there. And, to crown all, Egypt restored to him what the wild beasts of Canaan had robbed him of Joseph, whom he thought some beast in the promised land had torn to pieces, was alive in Egypt, and the second man in the kingdom.

Here was Egyptian flattery and fascination indeed, and that too, in full contrast with all that Canaan had been to him. At evening-time there was light; but it was an evening in Egypt. His eye might well have desired the lengthening and lingering of such a sunset; and his heart might have been tempted to contrast with it the clouds of his morning and his noon-day in Canaan. But faith is called a conqueror. It tries many a question with nature; and in some of the saints it gets many a fair and brilliant victory. And so was it here with Jacob, though it may be humbling to one's own heart to trace it. For we have here before us a beautiful witness that, in spite of all this, Canaan and not Egypt was the patriarch's object.

This is the victory that overcame Egypt then, and overcomes the world to this hour. No recollections of sorrows or disappointments in Canaan, no present possession of honours and wealth in Egypt, moved him — The promise of God ruled in his heart. Of Canaan as promised of God he spoke; in Canaan he hoped; in the place of his present prosperity he was a stranger, and thought of home only in the degraded and impoverished land he had left behind him. It was in Canaan he would be buried. It was there he was in spirit when he blessed his children; and it was there he gave the double portion to his adopted firstborn.

There is something very fine in this; and for us something significant and seasonable. For I may surely say of the present time through which we are passing, there is the poor Canaan and the wealthy and important Egypt. That which, like Canaan to the patriarchs, connects itself with God in the thoughts of faith is in a small and enfeebled state, while the world around is growing in its proper greatness and strength and dignity every hour.

It may be hard to learn this lesson which Jacob practised. We may see it on the page of his history, without finding it on any corresponding one of our own.

Joseph, however, after Jacob, illustrates this same power of faith. Egypt had received him, when Canaan had cast him out. Out of the one land he had been sold as a bond-slave; in the other he had been seated on the second seat in the kingdom. But withal (for faith is "the victory that overcometh the world"), Egypt never became Canaan to Joseph. The promise of God lived in Joseph's heart, as it had lived in Jacob's. Disappointments and sorrows in Canaan, flatteries and successes and honours in Egypt wrought not their natural results in that heart, because it was thus the seat of the promise of God. This was in the vigorous words of the apostle (in the patriarchal form which such energy would take) "a laying hold of eternal life" — which some of us know so little of.

But I must observe something further. It is felt by us to be a serious and hazardous thing at times, to let the world know that we have learnt this lesson — that poor Canaan is better than wealthy Egypt. We fully understand that men cannot lightly have the good thing they are nourishing and improving thus slighted. It is a reproach on themselves, when the world is undervalued.

There was a moment in Joseph's history, as I judge, when he felt this, when he had this experience of which I speak.

Jacob, his father, when dying, had made him swear that he would bury him in the land of Canaan. When Joseph comes to act upon his oath, he seems to me to feel this, that he was about to venture on a serious and hazardous matter. He evidently sets himself as before a business which had its special difficulties. He was high at court, as we may say; for, as we read, the physicians, the court physicians, were his servants (Gen. 1. 2). And we know the resources of the kingdom, the strength and wealth of the realm of Egypt, were at that moment under his hand. But still he hesitates about the matter of burying his father in Canaan, and gets the help and intercession of Pharaoh's near kindred.

Why all this? Was it not a small thing for so great a man to do? Yes; but a request to be buried in Canaan was, in some sense, putting a reproach upon Egypt. It seemed to say, after all, the Canaan of degradation and poverty was better than the Egypt of honour and wealth — that the gleanings of such an Ephraim were better than the vintage of such an Abi-ezer.

This was the language of Jacob's request; and Joseph felt it be a serious thing to convey such language to the ear of Pharaoh. But he did. Faith again triumphed; and after this manner is he a witness to us, that we should let the world distinctly learn from us, that, with all its advance and promise, it is nothing to us, while Christ's thing, though in weakness, is our object.

Peter

Peter.

Luke 5: 1-11; John 21: 1-14.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 17, 1890, p. 225.

(Although a paper with a similar title and on the same scriptures is in print, the notes of this address have not been before published. — Ed.)

The soul has its history as well as the body. The soul takes its journeys at times as well as the body. This we know and have experienced. Peter's spirit took a wondrous journey in Luke 5. He is there, at first, in the place of nature — an easy, kind-hearted man as ever lived, earnest to love and to serve; and being such an one, he readily lent his boat to the wondrous Stranger who was there addressing the multitude on the shore of the sea of Gennesaret. And when the wants of this Stranger were over, at His bidding Peter put his boat further into the lake, and let down his net for a draught.

But this was nature still. He had not left the place of nature yet — his own place, the place where his natural friendliness and easiness of temper had put him all his life hitherto. "Master," said he to Jesus, "we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net."

But now the journey of his soul begins — a wondrous, distant journey, but performed as in a whirlwind. The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof, in their way, were standing and waiting for him. The draught of fishes which came at the word of the Stranger surprised the soul of Peter, and at once bore him into the presence of God. The Stranger was transfigured before his soul as in the twinkling of an eye. He was the Lord of the fulness of the sea, who could command the draught, and Peter stood in the presence of God. The living God, the God of glory, was in the place, and Peter had not known it till now, and the sight overwhelms him. He learns himself there, and he is confounded. "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." It is no more "Master," but "Lord." It is no more the fisherman Peter, who had been toiling all the night at his nets, but the sinner Peter. It is a new world to him, the brightness of which is too powerful. He is in God's presence, and it is too much for him. He learns himself where only we can duly learn ourselves, in the presence of the glory of God. We have all sinned, and come short of that glory, and that is discovered by our souls when that glory is reached for the first time.

This was a journey indeed! Peter was taken from the native land of his easy, kindly, but revolted nature (revolted, because it could not stand before God), to the dwelling-place of the glory of God; and he apprehends that place in the brightness of it, and is amazed.

But he must go still further into this new world. He must still travel; and the word, the further word of the Lord, the word of Him whose divine honour and rights had here been discovered to him, must lead him on. "Fear not," says Jesus to him; and when he obeys, and follows where those words lead him, his journey is ended. He may dwell for ever in the place he has now reached. He has left the native land of nature for the presence of God, and found it the home of a poor, convicted, conscience-stricken sinner.

Many a journey, I am sure, the soul of Peter took in after days. He had to pass through the rebukes of the Lord; and they ever give the soul a chapter in its history, or take it some stage of that living way which the word of God has cast up before us, and along which the Spirit of God bears us. But I am thinking only of one other journey which this loved and earnest man had to perform under the hand of the Lord. I mean that which he takes in John 21: 1-14.

Here we find him again at his fishing. Sweet, natural scene! It is given to us in all the artlessness of truth. He and some companions are again oil the sea of Galilee, and again a Stranger addresses him. In like simplicity and friendship which gave him character , — at the first, he does as this Stranger bids him; and he is, in like grace, rewarded by another heavy draught of fishes. This was a token. It was symptomatic of who this Stranger was. The finger may not be sensitive enough to feel the pulse, or the eye keen enough to discover the mark. Peter fails in this faculty, and John sees for him. "' It is the Lord," says he to him. The eye had seen for the body, and then the foot begins its service. Peter's second journey begins, as we tracked him first in Luke 5, with the speed of a single, devoted, and loving Heart. He is in the water at once to reach the Lord. He now knew Him as he had not when he began his first journey. He had already said to him, "Fear not." He now knew Him, and is not amazed. His presence is not that of a glory that was overwhelming, but of a glory that had already given his conscience a home; and though that conscience had every reason at that moment to be a coward, it is bold as a lion. The fisherman Peter, when introduced at first to the presence of God, had become, in his experience, the sinner Peter; but now the fisherman Peter becomes, in his experience, tire loved, saved, accepted Peter. He will tread softly, surely he will, for he worships in the presence of God; but he treads confidently, for he is accepted in that presence, and courts it with all speed and all certainty. Right it was at first that in that presence he should be convicted and discover his sin; right it is now that in that presence he should be a worshipper, a consciously accepted worshipper, for that glory had already spoken comfortably to him.

What two draughts of fishes these were! What two journeys for the soul to take! How Peter's spirit was called to penetrate the new world where the glory and the grace of Christ so shine; and in the display of the grace that is there, I discover the same character after as before the resurrection. A blessed discovery for the soul. In other days, as in Mark 4, the Lord has to rebuke the disciples for their little faith, fearing as they had done when the storm rose on the lake. But ere He rebuked their unbelief He allayed their tremblings. He said, "Peace, be still" to the waves ere He said to the disciples, "How is it that ye have no faith?" And so now with Peter. He sits with Peter, He dines with Peter. The full, free fellowship of his heart with his loved One is made sure to Peter's spirit ere his Lord addresses Himself to his conscience, and brings his ways to remembrance. The Jesus who had once calmed the sea ere He rebuked the disciples, now gives Peter an unbroken net full of fishes, and dines with him, ere He says to him, "Lovest thou me?" Oh, the secrets of that land which Peter had entered! J. G. B.

The Pilgrim Fathers

The Pilgrim Fathers.

Hebrews 11: 13-16.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

What is declared in these verses of the Epistle to the Hebrews of the fathers in the book of Genesis, is beautifully exhibited, and thereby fully verified by their histories. I feel anxious to consider this a little carefully, the Lord leading the heart (as through circumstances I trust He graciously has done lately) a little more vividly beyond the grave.

1. "These all died in faith." The history strikingly illustrates this. They valued their dead bodies and the burying places which held them. While they lived, they were content to sojourn in Canaan without having so much as to set their foot on. But "they died in faith." The promise of God had made over that land, that very land, to them, though they themselves were to be gathered to their fathers (Gen. 15); and this was the warrant for their dying in faith, in the sure and certain hope of a resurrection unto the enjoyment of it. They would link their dead, though not their living, bodies with that land. Their care in securing the field of Ephron, the cave of Machpelah, for a burying-place, tells us this; and so the jealousy with which those of them who died in Egypt secured the carriage of their bones over to the promised land. All this verifies that "they died in faith." Whether their bodies lay in Machpelah or Sychem mattered not, for their bones would, in either case, be equally linked with the promised land. Stephen tells us that all the fathers were animated with this same faith. (Acts 7: 13) And I quite agree with those who say that this solves that difficult verse. (Acts 7: 16) Stephen shortly tells us that all were carried over from Egypt to Canaan, but whether to the ground which Abraham bought of Ephron, or that which Jacob bought of Hamor, it mattered not, for both equally linked their hopes with the promised inheritance. By faith they "gave commandment concerning their bones." (Heb. 11: 22)

2. "They saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them."

As they died in faith of the promises, so did they live in the full persuasion of them, though still distant. Their history, in like manner, gives beautiful witness of this.

Abraham lived in tents with Isaac, and Jacob. That was so indeed. But, then, they were heirs together of the promise. Of this they were, in the midst of their pilgrim-days, fully persuaded. And, therefore, on fitting occasions, they can act upon that full persuasion, in a way which nothing but such persuasion can account for, assuming the dignities and places which the promise warranted. Their "name was to be great and the land was to be theirs," and they would, if the moment called them, act in such character without thinking it robbery. See some instances of this.

Abimelech the king of Gerar courts the friendship of Abraham. Abraham at once allows the veil to drop, and puts off the pilgrim-girdle that hid or bound up his royal apparel, and takes headship of the Philistine king. (Gen. 21)

Isaac, in his day, does the same. Another Abimelech, king of Gerar, with the high estates of his kingdom, waits on Isaac, and Isaac accepts his person, grants his requests, prepares a feast, and then (instead of being sent away by Abimelech as before, in the day of humiliation) sends Abimelech away as in a day of power and majesty. His state is kingly. The great man of the earth, and the heavenly pilgrim, for a mystic hour have exchanged places; or, if not quite that, the pilgrim has become "king of kings." (Gen. 26)

And so Jacob. He blesses Pharaoh, taking to him without reserve the place of "the better." For "without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better." The confessed pilgrim assumes, for a moment, a dignity beyond that of the chief man of the earth in that day, the Pharaoh of Egypt. (Gen. 47)

Delightful scriptures, indeed, these are. Without reserve or apology, the heavenly strangers assume the station which will be theirs under promise of God in its season. And such an act tells us that, though as yet they "had not received the promises," yet were they "persuaded of them, and embraced them." They could, in the faith and spirit of their Lord, ascend the mount of transfiguration, on a due occasion.

3. "They confessed that they were strangers and Pilgrims on the earth."

This was literally so, in the progress of their journeys along the stream of time. By word of mouth they declared this of themselves. (Gen. 23: 4; Gen. 28: 4; Gen. 47: 9.)

Their actions, also, were according to this. The moral principles on which they carried themselves spoke the same language.

They lived in tents, signifying plainly that they were not taking up any certain settlement in the earth. They surrendered their rights in the world. Abraham, for instance, gave up the choice of the land to his younger brother, leaving it with him to appoint him whatever portion he pleased. (Gen. 13)

And Isaac does the same. The instance is very striking. The Lord so signally blesses him, there was so much of the divine presence manifestly with him, that his company becomes oppressive to the world, and the men of Gerar require him to withdraw from them. He yields at once. But the blessing follows him. His servants dig a well, and the Lord fills it. And then the uncircumcised seek his wells, and he yields again.

This was a pilgrim's practical life. He would put up with either insult or injury, with an affront to his name, or damage to his estate. This was moral power — the principle of a pilgrim's life. This was conduct becoming his confession, that he was a stranger on the earth. "Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth." It is natural they should. But neither Abraham nor Isaac are potsherds of the earth, but heavenly strangers.

Thus was their confession verified by their ways. They acted, and in their behaviour bore witness that they were pilgrims here.

4. "If they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to return."

The history very largely warrants this thought concerning the pilgrim fathers; a thought which tells us that their sense of strangership on earth did not arise from regrets, but from hopes. They were dissatisfied with the present thing, not because of that which was past but of that which was to come. The scene around was a wilderness by reason of the power over them of the scene before and not of that behind them.

They might easily have retraced the road to Padan-aram — Eliezer did so. They had not forgotten the way, for he did not mistake a step nor had to enquire it. And as easy would it have been for Abraham or for Isaac to have taken that journey as for Eliezer. But Eliezer went there only to do a certain business and to return. In a moral sense, his visit to the land from whence his master, Abraham, had come out, was no return to it. He did not linger there beyond the term of the appointed service. "Send me away unto my master," was his word then, and no entreaties or kindnesses could change it. (Gen. 24)

And Rebecca's mind was the same. "I will go" was her immediate decision, when the matter was referred to her. All this being according to the purposes and thoughts of the great patriarch himself. For on sending Eliezer away, he had taken an oath of him that he would, on no pretence whatever, take his son back to that land of his kindred. Let consequences be what they may, that was never to be done.

Jacob, too, however to appearance it may be otherwise, acts exactly in the same spirit and on the same principles. His wrong way brings him under divine chastening, and he has to seek the distant land of his forefathers. But he is there as an exile rather than as at home. He is there actually because of God's discipline, but not there morally, because of the desire of his own heart. He remains there, it is true, a far longer time than Eliezer had; as many years, perhaps, as the other had hours. But still, all the time, he is there in the spirit of Eliezer. For, like him, as soon as the business was done, as soon as the purpose or hand of the Lord gives him his dismissal, he leaves it — leaves it, too, I may add, though Laban's contract and God's blessing were making it profitable for him to remain; and though Esau's enmity, he might well judge, awaited him if he dared to return. But so it was. With loss behind and danger before him, he leaves it. Indeed, such had been his purpose throughout, from beginning to end. As he was setting out, he talks, with all desire, of his return. As soon as Joseph is born, his hopes are all alive that the time of his banishment is over. And he remains after that only under God's sanction, and departs as soon as God's word allows him. (Gen. 28: 21; Gen. 30: 25; Gen. 31: 3-13.) All this surely telling us that morally, or in the spirit of his mind, he had no more returned to that land than Abraham or Isaac.

This mind not to go back to the place from which they had been called was, therefore, the mind which strongly impregnated the whole pilgrim family. It was so much the air they breathed, that even the Syrian servant inhaled it, and lived by it, and the elect bride felt the virtue of it at once. The language of their walk concerning their native land, was what ours should be concerning "this present evil world:"

"'Twere easy, did we choose,

Again to reach the shore;

But this is what our souls refuse:

We'll never touch it more."

"Christ pleased Not Himself."

"Christ pleased Not Himself."

J. G. Bellett.

from Musings on Scripture, Volume 1.

It has just struck me, that we may continually observe all absence in the Lord to merely please His disciples. He never did this. Nay, I am sure that He passed by many little opportunities of gratifying them, as we speak, or of introducing Himself to their favour. He did not seek to please, and yet He bound them deeply and intimately to Himself.

This was very blessed; and the same thing in any one is always a symptom of moral power.

"If we seek to please, we shall scarcely fail to please." This is true, I doubt not; but nothing can be morally lower. It makes a fellow-creature supreme; and we deal with him as though his favour was life to us, which God's is, but His only.

But to bind one in full confidence to us — to draw the heart — to have ourselves in the esteem and affection of others, without ever in one single instance having that as our object — this is morally great. For nothing can account for this, but that constant course of love which, by necessity of its own virtue, tells others that their real interests, and prosperity, and blessing are in deed and in truth the purpose and desire of our hearts.

And this was the Lord. Nothing that He did told them that He sought to please them; but everything that He did told them that He sought to bless them.

And again I say — I believe that He passed by many little opportunities of gratifying them, or of introducing Himself to their favour. And yet He met them graciously and tenderly on many occasions which we might have resented. And both of these, the one as well as the other, came from those springs and sources of a moral perfection which took their rise in Him. For if vanity had no part in Him to put Him to an effort to please, malice had no part in Him to make Him quick to resent. He could not be flattered into graciousness, nor provoked into unkindness. Look at Luke 22: 24-30. They had just betrayed nature, striving through pride about the highest place. He corrects this; but He does not hold that object long before Him, but allows another to command His heart and His thoughts respecting them — "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations."

Was that exactly the moment for remembering this fact? Was it just the time for looking at them so steadily in so favourable a light? No, not for nature to do so; but for Jesus it was just the time. And He is our example, that we should follow His steps, and partake of His mind. And after the pattern of this little occasion, we have to remember that it is not the present act that has to decide our thoughts and hearts respecting each other. It may have much of the vileness or working of nature in it, as this strife had; but it may be., as this strife was, the act of those in whom much of the preciousness of the Spirit dwells; and "the precious" should be remembered for the commanding of our thoughts often, even in the very presence of "the vile."

Strange this may appear. Yes, and the ways of divine unselfish love are strange. Here is our pilgrim part, and the part of a stranger in a scene of multiform selfishness like this. It may not be well to be always understood. Joseph spoke roughly to his brethren in a moment of their sorrow. But Joseph was not to be the servant of the present moment, but of their good. He was seeking to bless them, not to please them. Jesus told Thomas in a moment of repentance, that there was a character of still higher blessing to which he did not belong. But Jesus was true to the truth, true to us all, true to Thomas himself, when he might have been flattered into softness. Like Joseph, He was serving Thomas, and not the moment or occasion.

O the perfectness of it all! O the unspottedness of the path of His spirit within, as of His feet abroad! O the beauty of all which love does or says! We shall understand it all bye-andbye, and have pages open to us which now we have no eyes to read. Through selfishness, we mistake the doings of love, and expect gratifications, when we find ourselves passed by; and are sent away with the material of some solid lasting benefit, when we hoped for a mere present pleasurable excitement.

O, for more of that love that is "in deed and in truth," which eyes the solid good of others, and can sacrifice their favour towards ourselves to their own blessing.

The Potter's Broken Vessel

The Potter's Broken Vessel.

Jeremiah 18, 19.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend, vol. 7, 1880, p. 32.

I feel and judge very distinctly that there is a special character in this present time through which we are passing. The great powers which are destined to fill out the action of Christendom's closing day are practising themselves, each in its several sphere, with great earnestness and skill. I mean the civil and the ecclesiastical.

I do not doubt but that, for a season, the ecclesiastical will prevail. The woman is to ride again for a while — a prophetic symbol, as I believe, signifying ecclesiastical supremacy. And this present moment is marked by many efforts on the behalf of that which takes the place of the Church, or of the ecclesiastical theory, thus to exalt itself; and she is so adroitly directing those efforts that success may speedily await them, and then the blood of the saints may flow afresh.

The civil power, however, is anything but idle. The wondrous advance that it is making every day in the cultivation of the world proves great skill and activity on its part. It is largely boasting itself, showing what it has done, and pledging what further it means to do.

At this moment each of these powers is abroad in the scene of action, and the minds of men are divided between them. In some sense they are rivals. There is the commercial energy, and there is the religious energy; the one is erecting its railroads and making its exhibitions; the other is extending its bishoprics, building its temples, multiplying its ordinances, and the like. The attention of the children of men is divided between these things; but the saint who knows the cross of Christ as the relief of his conscience, and the reason of his separation from the world, is apart from them both.

I doubt not that the civil power will have to yield the supremacy for a time, and the woman will ride again, though her state and greatness will be but for a little; for the civil power will take offence, and remove her.

If we, in God's grace, keep a good conscience towards Christ and His truth, we may count upon it that no inheritance in the earth is worth, as people speak, many years' purchase. If we consent to become whatever the times would make us, of course we may go on, and that, too, advancing with an advancing world.*

*I speak simply of things as they are on the earth. I know that at any time, independently of them, the saints may be taken up to meet the Lord in the air.

I have been sensible lately how much the spirit of Jeremiah suits these times. He lived in the daily observation of evil. Iniquity was abounding in the scene around him, though it was called by God's name, and was indeed His place on the earth. The house of prayer had become a "den of thieves," though they still cried, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these." He knew that the judgment of God was awaiting it all, and he looked for happy days which lay in the distance, beyond the present corruption and the approaching judgment. Over all this corruption Jeremiah ,mourned; against it all he testified; and, like his Master, he was hated for his testimony. (John 7: 7.) He was, however, full of faith and hope; and in the strength of that (anticipating the future) he laid out his money in the purchase of Hanameel's field. (Jer. 32.) All this was beautiful — the present sorrow over the corruption of the daughter of his people, faith's certainty of the coming judgment, and hope's prospect of closing crowning glory.

This is a pattern for our spirit. And I observe another feature of power in the prophet. He was not to be seduced from the conclusions of faith by occasional fair and promising appearances. (See Jer. 37.) The Chaldean army had broken up their camp under the walls of Jerusalem because of the arrival of the Egyptian allies. This circumstance flattered the Jewish people into hopes; but Jeremiah left the city, because he would still hold to the conclusions of faith — that Jerusalem was doomed of God in righteous judgment.

All this is a fine exhibition of a soul walking by the light of God, not merely through darkness, but through darkness which seemed to be light.

All seems to be quiet around us at present, and even more than that, things are greatly and rapidly advancing, as far as all the accommodations of social life extend. But the moral of the scene, in the eye of faith, is more serious than ever. The apostate principles of man's heart are but ripening themselves into their most fruitful and abundant exhibition. There is something of rivalry in the different powers that are in action just at present. The secular and the religious are apart to a great extent. Each has its respective worshippers; but ere long confederacy will take the place of rivalry, I believe. The world must, even for its own ends, adopt religion for a time, that man's system may grow solid, as well as extended and brilliant, and propose itself as that which has earned a title to conform all and everything to itself.

Separation is the Christian's place and calling - church separation — separation because of heavenly citizenship and oneness with an already risen Christ. Abraham's separation was very peculiar; it was twofold. He was separated from the natural associations of Mesopotamia, "country, kindred, and father's house," and from the moral associations of Canaan, or its iniquity and its idols.

In the thought of these solemn truths, beloved, may the Lord Himself be more real and near to us! May the hope of His appearing be found lying more surely and calmly in the midst of the affections and stirrings of our hearts! All was reality with Jeremiah, to whom I have referred. The present corruption was a reality to him, for he rebuked it and bewailed it; the approaching judgment was a reality to him, for he wept at the thought of it, and deprecated it; the final glory was a reality to him, for he laid out his money upon it. He had occasional refreshments of spirit. His sleep, and the dream that accompanied it, in Jer. 31, was, as he says, "sweet unto him." It was a moment on "the holy hill" to him; for a light from the kingdom, or the glory, visited him. He had likewise revelations, and he could speak and write of them — but not only as thus refreshed and gifted in spirit; he was real and true in moral power. He testified against this "present world" unto suffering, and laid out his money, his expectations, and labours, on "the world to come."

It was this which completed his character, and all would have been poor without it. We may speak of Christ, and teach about the kingdom — one's own soul knows it well; but to witness for Him against the world, and to be rich towards God, this is to fill out and realize our character as saints. We may covet these elements of the Christian character. Some of us, if one may speak, are but half Jeremiahs. We can talk of Christ, but can we suffer for Him? We can teach about the kingdom, but can we lay out our money upon it?

All this may admonish us, beloved, but I have another word in my heart just at present also.

The parable of the potter, in Jer. 18, 19, was designed to let Israel know that, though brought into covenant, they were still within the range and reach of the divine judgments, and that such judgments would overtake them because of their sins. In John Baptist's time, Israel is found in the like character of self-confidence. If in Jeremiah's day they would say, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these;" in the Baptist's day they said, "We have Abraham to our father." But John, like Jeremiah, would again teach them that, though in covenant, judgment could reach them. In the Lord's ministry we find the same. Israel still boasted. They talked of Abraham being their father, and of God being their Father (John 8), but we know how the Lord again and again warned them of the coming judgment. All this has a lesson for our learning.

Christendom or Babylon has taken this ancient place of Israel. She trusts in security in spite of unfaithfulness. She boasts in the Lord, though her moral condition be vile. She says, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow" (Rev. 18: 7), though blood, and pride, and all abominations, stain her. But Rev. 18 is another action. Like that of the prophet in the potter's house, it teaches the unfaithful one that the doom of the broken vessels, or of the millstone cast into the sea, awaits her. This is for our learning. God never sanctions disobedience. He did not go into the garden of Eden to accredit Adam's sin, but to bring relief in the way of grace for it. So, in the gospel, He utterly condemns sin, while delivering the sinner.

Nor does He ever commit Himself to His stewards. He commits Himself to His own gifts and calling (Rom. 11: 29), but never to His stewards. They are always held responsible to Him, and disobedience works forfeiture. Christ is the only Steward that ever stood and answered for Himself in the conditional place, and in this respect, as in every other, He is the moral contradiction of man. In the temptation (Matt. 4) the devil sought to inspire the Lord with confidence in spite of disobedience. He partially cited Ps. 91, quoted the promised security, omitting the required obedience. But he was utterly defeated. The Lord in answering cited Deut. 6, and acted accordingly; for in that chapter obedience is declared to be Israel's ground of security. In this way did Jesus keep His own blessings under Psalm 91, and His Israel's blessings under Deut. 6. But all other stewards, in their several turn and season, have failed, and Babylon's boast, which we have already listened to, is a lie.

All this may now-a-days be had in our remembrance seasonably; for we live at a time when Babylon is filling herself afresh with this boast, just before her overthrow, when she is to meet the doom of the millstone. (Rev. 18: 21.) For the boast of "the eternal city," as she calls herself, only the more awfully signalizes her for the judgment of God. It is a favourite thought with her, that while other churches tremble for their safety, she is above such fears — she is God's city, and has His walls around her. This is imposing; but, when considered by the teaching of the Word, it only the more distinctly declares what she is, and witnesses her more advanced ripeness for the judgment of God. Because this boast is defiance. It is not faith in God, but disavowal of His rights and authority. It is the denial of her subjection to Him, of her stewardship or place of being answerable to Him and His judgment. This boast of being "the eternal city" so far identifies her with the Babylon that says, "I sit a queen, and am no widow," and it leaves her for the doom of the potter's vessel in the valley of the son of Hinnom, or of the millstone in the hand of the angel. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again." (See Jer. 19: 11.) J. G. B.

The people of God should wait with the girdle and the lamp, which are the beautiful standing symbols of their calling, till the Lord appears — that is, with minds girt up unto holy separation from present things, and with hearts brightened up with the desire and expectation of coming things. J. G. B.

The Redemption of the Purchased Possession

The Redemption of the Purchased Possession.

Eph. 1: 14.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

The earth is the subject of redemption as well as man. It is already purchased, and by and bye, in due season, it shall be rescued or delivered. That is, it is the subject of the two-fold redemption known in scripture, redemption by price, and redemption by power.

The blood of the cross has already reconciled or purchased it. As we read, "and having made peace by the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him, I say, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven." (Col. 1)

This gives the inheritance the title of "the purchased possession."

But though purchased, it is not yet delivered. It is still under "the bondage of corruption." (Rom. 8) It is redeemed by purchase, but not as yet by power. We therefore wait for the "redemption" of that which is already a "purchased possession."

This bright and happy truth, this mystery found among the mysteries of God, has had its pledges and foreshadowings, as well as others.

The ordinance of the Jubilee seems to set forth this twofold redemption — by price and by power. (See Lev. 25) For that chapter teaches us that at any time during forty-nine years, the alienated possession of an Israelite might have been purchased by the kinsman of the heir, and thus redeemed or brought back to the family to which, under God, it had belonged; but if that were not done, it would return to the heir in the fiftieth year, or the Jubilee, without purchase.

These two ordinances, again, I say, seem to set forth the mystery I am speaking of redemption by money and redemption by power. The kinsman might redeem with money, the Jubilee. would redeem without money, by virtue of its own title, by virtue of that force or authority imparted to it by Him who was the God of Israel and the Lord of the soil.*

*We ourselves wait to be redeemed by power. Resurrection will do that.

Again, Jeremiah the prophet was commanded to purchase the field of Hanameel, his uncle's son. He did so, in the spirit and obedience of faith, though at that moment the Chaldean army was in the land, and was under commission from the Lord to tread it down, and waste it, or possess themselves of it. But when Jeremiah made enquiry respecting this strange thing, that he should be asked to lay out his money upon a piece of land thus devoted to the sword of an invader, the Lord tells him that a day of power was to come, and that in that land there should be redemption, and that the Lord's own people should possess it again, brought back out of the hand of every spoiler. This was the Lord's answer to His servant. And thus Jeremiah had reason to know that the purchase now made by good money of the merchant, should be made good in a coming day of power. (See Jer. 32)

And let me add one other notice of this distinguished case, the purchase of Hanameel's field, for it has interested me. "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" is the Lord's challenge of Jeremiah on this occasion, as it is of Sarah in Gen. 18. Sarah did not know how she, whose body was then dead, could have a child, for she knew not the resurrection-strength of God. Jeremiah did not know how he, who was laying out his money on a piece of ground which was then in the hand of the enemy, could get its value back again; for, like Sarah, he knew not the resurrection-strength of God.

That strength makes all simple. The victory of Christ, the resurrection of Jesus, gives us to our inheritance sure rights under the seal of a title-deed easy to be read.

Rahab

Rahab.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

What an instance does the case of Rahab afford us of the long-suffering of God being salvation, as Peter speaks!

The camp of Israel had accomplished their journey, a journey of forty years. At the beginning of it, a mixed multitude followed them out of Egypt. Very soon after they had entered on it, and were clean delivered from Egypt, Hohab, the Midianite, joined them. But now, at the very end of it, yea, something even beyond that, when the desert had been fully traversed, and the appointed or penal term of forty years was fully spent, in an interval of delay or long-suffering, the ransomed of the Lord lingering on the confines of the desert and the land, this harlot of Jericho joins them.

This is full of meaning. The entrance of Israel into Canaan was to be the judgment of that people. But the moment is delayed. Was it that the Lord was slack concerning His promise that the inheritance of that land was to be made sure to the children of the Genesis-fathers? No; but this delay was salvation. God delayed the day of visitation on the peoples, that He might call His elect to repentance.

This history is a vivid expression of that great principle.* Joshua, however, does not appear to have been in the secret of God's grace; as Peter was not in the secret of His grace to the Gentiles, nor Paul in the secret of His grace to Europe. (Acts 10 - 16) It is to spy out the land Joshua sends these two men. No mission of mercy to the people seems to animate his action or guide his thoughts. But the grace of God, in a way unlooked for by His, people, worked then and works still. It passed over to the Gentiles before Peter did; it passed over to Macedonia before Paul did; and it now crosses the Jordan before Joshua.

*The 120 years of Noah's preaching was another season of delay or salvation — a time of similar long-suffering. (1 Peter 3)

But further. If Joshua be not in the secret of God's grace, the spies whom he sends cannot be in the commission of it. They are, however, prepared for such a service. This is truly blessed. They were not entrusted with such a business, or under orders concerning it; but they fulfil it at once without reserve, without suspicion as to their title to do so, and in all possible confidence and decision. Precious beyond thought this is! They heard nothing from their captain about such a thing, but they pledge deliverance to Rahab, and make the security of that Canaanite as ample and as perfect as that of any Israelite in the camp, as rich and full even as their own. God was their title, though uncommissioned by Joshua; for, in His eyes, the feet of the publishers of grace on the mountains, even on defiled Canaan, are beautiful. (See Rom. 10)

Who can tell the gospel-comfort of this? But again. The spies themselves, in a day or two afterwards, enter the land in quite another character. They were now going there at the peril of their lives: in a day or two they would go under the conduct of the ark and in company with the glory. They were now going as the witness and the channel of blessing to a poor sinner of the Place; in a day or two they would go to execute the judgment of the Lord and to share the spoils and the inheritance. They were now in weakness and danger, thankful for the shelter of some stalks of flax to hide them from the pursuer: but they were speedily to be in victory and honour in the same, place.*

*What a sample, I may say, we get of the same mysteries in the apostle, who was let down the wall of Damascus in a basket, and yet in a rapture taken up to the third heaven!

Wonderful in its value to us is all this, in its consolations and encouragements.

Further, however, as to Rahab. Let the glory thus enter the land, and the judgments conduct their solemn work, she is safe. She had believed the word of the spies about the scarlet line, and been faithful to them in the hour of their weakness and degradation.

This is to be much observed. She had not uttered their business, and she is, therefore, as safe as they are; that is, she had been faithful to them in their time of weakness and danger and degradation; and now, in the day of their victory and strength, when all things are changed, she is as they are, their victory is her victory, their security is her security, their inheritance her inheritance.

"Our life for yours," say the spies to Rahab, "if ye utter not this our business." How strikingly the great principle of the gospel expresses itself there! For faith was demanded by that word of the spies, as faith is that which is true to Christ's humiliation, and weakness, and sorrow. It, is faith which understands that precious gospel mystery. It is faith which holds to Jesus in the hour of His cross. Christ crucified is faith's secret. The abandoning of that secret would be death. "If ye continue in the faith." says the apostle. To give up the hour of the Lord's weakness — for "He was crucified through weakness" — is to forfeit everything. But faith is true to that mystery, as Rahab uttered not the business of the spies, nor betrayed them in the hour of their degradation, weakness, and peril.

This, surely, is full of meaning for us.

And again. Her pledge was in the midst of the scene of judgment, but it had been appointed by the executors of judgment. It was they who had passed it to her. No, necessity could be higher. As in the paschal night of Egypt, the sword is borne by the hand of Him who had ordained the blood on the lintel. No security could surpass that. But such as it, and equal to it, is the security for a sinner by the gospel. As it is written, "herein is love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because, as He is, so are we in this world." We are in the world, the place of judgment, and Jesus is on high; nevertheless His safety is ours: "as He is, so are we in this world."

Interesting Reminiscences

Interesting Reminiscences

of the

Early History of "Brethren."

J. G. Bellett to James M. McAllister. Extracts from a letter.

With Letter from J. G. Bellett to J. N. Darby.

Publishers: Walter Scott, Weston-super-Mare; Alfred Holness, London. CBA2051.

When I call to mind some of the early facts connected with the history of the "Brethren," as for distinction I will call them, I am impressed with a sense of there having been at that time a very independent and original teaching of the Spirit of God.

I do not doubt that however they may have aided one another afterwards or grown together in the understanding and enjoyment of much common truth, earlier impressions had been abroad upon the hearts of many without conference or suggestion, which, however, led them readily and necessarily to run together when once they did confer.

I believe the earliest times of our history, both in England and in this country (Ireland), might exhibit this.

I may fail in accuracy of recollection, and, of course, I may mistake when I was not personally engaged, but I will follow just as my memory suggests to me, bethinking myself, of course, as I proceed, and praying the Lord to guide in all simplicity and truth.

It was in the year 1827 that the late Archbishop of Dublin, in a charge delivered to the clergy of his diocese, recommended that a petition should go up to the legislature seeking for increased protection for them in the discharge of their ministerial duties as the teachers of religion in these lands.

John Darby was then a curate in the county Wicklow, and often did I visit in his mountain parish. This charge of his Diocesan greatly moved him; he could not understand the common Christianity of such a principle, as it assumed that the ministers in doing their business as witnesses against the world for a rejected Jesus should, on meeting the resistance of the enemy, turn round and seek security from the world. This greatly offended him. He printed his objections to such a principle in a pretty large pamphlet, and without publishing it or putting it on sale, sent copies of it to all the clergy in the diocese. All this had a very decided influence on his mind, for I remember him at one time as a very exact churchman, as I may speak, but it was evident that his mind had now received a shock, and it was never again what it had been; however, he continued in his mountain curacy, at times as a clergyman visiting distant parts of the county, either to preach sermons or to speak at some meeting of the religious societies.

In the beginning of 1828 I had occasion to go to London, and then I met in private and heard in public those who were warm and alive on prophetic truth, having had their minds freshly illuminated by it.

In my letters to J. N. D. at this time, I told him I had been hearing things that he and I had never yet talked of, and I further told him on my return to Dublin what they were. Full of this subject as I then was, I found him quite prepared for it also, and his mind and soul had travelled rapidly in the direction which had thus been given to it.

I continued, however, in Dublin, and he more generally in the county Wicklow, but he had introduced me to dear F. Hutchinson, whose memory is very dear to me and much honoured by me. He and I found we had much in common, and dear Francis too. Dissatisfied as I was, we went occasionally to the dissenting chapels together, but we had not much sympathy with the tone prevalent. The sermons we heard had generally, perhaps, less of the sympathy of Christ in them than what we had in the pulpits of the Established Church, and the things of God were dealt with more for the intellect and by the intellect, than, as we judged, suited the proper cravings of the renewed and spiritual mind. I believe I may say this for him as well as for myself, so we held on (loosely though it was) by the Established Church still. Mr Groves, who was a dentist of distinguished practice in Devonshire, some short time before this had offered himself to the Church Missionary Society, and in order to fit himself for its service had entered our college. I knew him soon after his first reaching Dublin, and he was occasionally staying with us in coming here to pass his quarterly examinations.

In a way perfectly independent of all that had been passing in the minds of others, he was taught to see that college education for the work of the ministry was not the thing, and that he was wasting much time in Dublin attending his examinations. and by the entrance of these thoughts the whole question was raised in his mind, so that he not only abandoned his connection with college, but viewed as he never before had done, the whole matter of the Established Church and the claims of Dissenting bodies. In the close of 1828 he visited Dublin, though he had seceded from the College. He preached in Poolbeg Street at the request of dear Dr. Egan, then in connection with the little company formed there, of whom Richard Pope, well known in Ireland at the time, was one. Walking one day with him, as we were passing down Lower Pembroke Street, he said to me, "This, I doubt not, is the mind of God concerning us, that we should come together in all simplicity as disciples, not waiting on any pulpit or minister, but trusting that the Lord would edify us together, by ministering as He pleased and saw good from the midst of ourselves."

At the moment he spoke these words I was assured my soul had got the right idea, and that moment I remember it as if it was yesterday, and could point you out the place — it was the birth place of my mind, dear James, may I so speak as a brother.

Edward Cronin had been by profession an Independent, and a member of York Street, but his mind at the same time was under a like influence, I may say, with us all. In a private room he had the Lord's Supper with, I believe, three others, while I was going still to Sandford Chapel and J. N. Darby was still in county Wicklow as a clergyman. In the summer of 1829 our family was at Kingstown, and dear F. Hutchinson at Bray. We saw each other occasionally, and spoke of the things of the Lord, but where he went on a Sunday at that time I cannot tell. I attended the Scotch Church at Kingstown, where all who were understood to be new-born were welcome. But on returning to Dublin in the November of that year, F. Hutchinson was quite prepared for communion in the name of the Lord with all, whosoever they might be, who loved Him in sincerity, and proposed to have a room in his house in Fitzwilliam Square for that purpose. He did so, designing, however, so to have it that if any were disposed to attend the services in the Parish Church or Dissenting chapels they might not be hindered; and he also prescribed a certain line of things as to the services of prayer, singing and teaching that should be found among us each day. E. Cronin was prepared for this fully. I joined, but not, I think at all with the same liberty and decision of mind. Several others also were ready, and just at this time we first knew William Stokes.

Thus we continued from November, 1829. Some time before this I had become acquainted with J. Parnell (now Lord Congleton), and in that month (November, 1829) and through the spring of 1830, he was occasionally in Dublin and frequently amongst us. He became very familiar with Edward Cronin, and in the month of May, purposing to let the Lord's Table in the midst of us become somewhat more of a witness, he took a large room in Aungier Street belonging to a cabinet maker. There the meeting was transferred during that month. This tried me still more — the publicity of it was too much for me. I instinctively shrank. F. Hutchinson, as I remember, would also rather have continued in the private house, so that I believe I did not join them for one or two Sundays, and I am not sure that he did, but the others were there at once. J. Parnell, W. Stokes, E. Cronin and a few sisters, and shortly several were added.

In the summer of 1831, the mission party to Bagdad was formed. Mr Groves had been there for some months previously, and E. Cronin and his sister and J. Parnell with two or three more were desirous of joining him.

It was in the month of September they left us, sailing to France, and purposing to reach Bagdad across the desert from Syria. J. Hamilton, whom some of us had known for two or three years, was also of the party. He had with many others become dissatisfied with the existing order of things, and was very much of one mind with us all, and giving up other occupation, was ready to be one of the Mission party to the East ; and I rather think he was another witness of the independent energy of the Spirit of God which was abroad, as I have said, at this time. They sailed, and we continued our room in Aungier Street. It was poor material we had, dear James, and we had one or two solemn and awful cases of backsliding. There was but little spiritual energy and much that was poor treasure for a living Temple, but we held together in the Lord's mercy and care, I believe advancing in the knowledge of His mind. The settled order of worship that we had in Fitzwilliam Square gave place gradually, teaching and exhorting were first made common duties and services, while prayer was restricted under the care of two or three who were regarded as elders, but gradually all this yielded. In a little time no appointed or recognised eldership was understood to be in the midst of us, and all service was of a free character, the presence of God through the Spirit being more simply believed and used. In the year 1834 many more were added, and that year J. N. Darby being in Dublin, it was a question with him whether he should come and help us, as God might give him grace, in Aungier Street, or preach, as he had been invited, at the Asylum in Leeson Street, but he was all but detached from the Church of England. He visited different places either that year or the next, and amongst them *Oxford, Plymouth, Cork and Limerick, ministering wherever he might the truth which God had given him from His Word, and I doubt not, from what I remember, he found in all these places other evidences of the independent work of the Spirit of God on the hearts and consciences of the saints of which I have spoken. In Limerick and Cork occasionally preaching in the pulpits of the Established Church, he also met Christians in private houses, and the influence of his ministry was greatly blessed, light and refreshment visited many a soul, and that, too, of an order to which they had before been strangers; and by invitation going from Wexford to Plymouth, he found the same there, and that in those distant places which had, perhaps, never been combined before in any one kindred influence, this grace was magnified, and happy promising little groups of saints, who sought relief from their heaviness, were found in these places.

*J. N. D.'s first visit to Oxford and Plymouth was before this — G. V. W.

Just about the same time, dear Lady Powerscourt had begun some prophetic meetings. Her mind had also taken the same direction as that which was among us all. Some of us were invited by her, some also from England, and those occasions greatly helped us. It was then I first knew G. Wigram, Percy Hall, and others. The meetings were truly precious to the soul, and night after night did I return to my room at Powerscourt House in the deep sense of how little a one I was in Christ in the presence of so much force and devotedness as I judged I had been seeing around me through the day.

Thus it was in those days, dear James, and in Aungier Street we were pursuing our way, many being added to us, some who are to this hour in Brunswick Street, among the many to be loved and cherished there. We were occasionally hearing from the party that went to Baghdad, and occasionally visited by brethren from Cork, Limerick and other places, where the same influence had by this time been known. But I might mention dear and. honoured J. Mahon as another instance of the independent action of the Spirit of God of which I have spoken I remember E. Cronin visiting him at Ennis, it might, I think, be in 1828, and on his return to Dublin telling me about him. And I have reason to believe that before we had any table in F.H.'s house, there had been one in his, somewhere in the town of Ennis, by means of one of his family, if not by himself.

This was altogether independent of any doings amongst us, and so, I may add, was it in England, as I might prove to you.

Having occasion to visit Somersetshire in 1831 or 1832, and being at Sir E. Denny's, he asked me to give him an idea of the "Brethren." We were sitting round the fire, and the daughter of the clergyman was present. As I stated our thoughts, she said they had been her's for the last twelve months, and that she had no idea that any one had them but herself. So also being at -- shortly afterwards, a dear brother now departed to the Lord, told me that he, his wife, and his wife's mother were meeting in the simplicity of the "Brethren's" way for some time before he ever heard of such people. This brother and the lady mentioned at Sir E. Denny's, as soon as occasion allowed, were in full communion with us, and she continues so to this day in the county Down. I like to trace these circumstances, for they help to assure us that the Lord's hand was independently at work designing to revive another testimony in the midst of His saints.

I feel that I have got evidence at command for the existence of this independent energy of His Spirit.

Among other witnesses of this nearer home, I mention that dear Groves revisited Ireland after the absence of two or three years, and I remember well his telling us of a remarkable movement in the southern part of the Indian peninsula, which indicated a mind quite in harmony with that which had been leading us in our position in England and Ireland. The English brethren year after year visited Ireland, not only Dublin, but the country places. J. Harris, once a clergyman near Plymouth, was among them. G. Wigram for a long-continued time was in Cork, and all the time J. N. Darby was in the two countries by turns, occasionally with us in Dublin, but more frequently either in Plymouth or in Cork; and the gatherings multiplying in England to a very great number, became known by the name of "Plymouth Brethren," and in this country were called "Darbyites." I do not know that I need follow the history beyond this, dear James, as your enquiry was rather about our beginnings I would not doubt but a fresh purpose of God and a fresh work of the Spirit were put forth in the call of the Brethren. Such things have been from time to time under various characters, though with a kindred spirit, during the dispensation. The dispensation almost suggests such a thing, or makes it necessary, for it is not the ordered system of things linked with the, earth or with flesh and blood, as was the former thing in Israel.

The call of the Church is apart from the world, to do service in the light and strength of the Holy Ghost, and to maintain in living spiritual grace, testimony to a rejected and heavenly Jesus. All within and around us is contrary to this. Such a call can be upheld, such a dispensation maintained, only in the direct grace of the Spirit, ministered to elect vessels and filling them with the freshness and apprehension of the truth. No ordered service or course of fleshly ordinances can at all answer this end; no transmitted or cessational office can at all fill out and discharge its duties; no such authority is owned by it. In man, there is over a tendency to the mere ways of nature and to the course of the world, and in order to sustain a thing spiritual and living like the Church, the natural way, yea, necessary way (save that God is sovereign), is by a fresh putting forth of light and power to revive it again and again, that there may be still a testimony to the power of God and to the ways and services of a living house, so that the coal may not be quenched.

Such revivals may each of them have its peculiarity, each partaking of the kindred spirit or of the common witness that the same Holy Ghost is working. The Reformation, it is always acknowledged, was marked by a clear and fervent witness of justification by faith — the very truth then needed, for the delivery of souls long held in deep captivity. Other energies and revivals had their character in like manner, and whether they have ever or not become the subject of history, faith knew of them, and the souls of the elect were edified and thankful.

I do not doubt that the work of God by and with "Brethren" had its special purpose also. It seemed with certainty to present the separateness of the Church from the world, and a distinct witness of the heavenly calling and high peculiar dignity, as also to assert the precious truth that nothing else is worthy of the House of God, though the house be in ruins, as surely it was known and felt to be in a dispensational sense. And further, the "Brethren" aided the testimony, which was rising again, to the coming and kingdom of the Lord, with some heavenly apprehensions connected with that great mystery, which were consistent with their separate and heavenly position, and with that only. For there are prophetic truths which must be ever felt more or less at variance with any church system which links itself with the world.

Thus in simplicity, as my mind led me, I have done as you wished, dear James. I will not speak as to the result of this in the "Brethren." It would be painful, and it is needless. Each heart among us knows many and many a secret cause of humiliation, which the present distracted condition in which we are found tells of itself.

"When He giveth quietness, who, then can make trouble?" May such experience be more deeply and richly felt by us and ours.

Believe me, dear James,

Ever your affectionate brother,

(Signed) J. G. BELLETT,

Note by Mr Darby.

All I have to remark is, that on their returning to Dublin, 1827 (1829?), I was laid up in Fitzwilliam Street with a hurt.

We had reading meetings, and these things came up among some others.

Five of us met at Fitzwilliam Square — Bellett, Cronin, Hutchinson, the present Master Brooke (who was frightened away by Hutchinson), and myself. As Hutchinson was willing, I proposed meeting next Sunday.

We did at H.'s house. Brooke did not come. I have read since that Cronin had already met with Wilson and some others, but they had broken up. Of that I knew nothing. I afterwards went down and worked at Limerick, where it began next, Tom Mansell living there. It was subsequently after July, 1830, I went to Oxford (where Wigram was at Queen's) and joined him and Jarratt, and thence went to Plymouth, where it soon began in England, and immediately afterwards, through Wigram, in London. I was not in Dublin when they went to Aungier Street, but I went there afterwards.  J. N. D

Note by Mr Wigram.

Two or three or four of us had broken bread together when I was at Oxford, before E. Cronin went with others to the East, and from that time (1829 or 1830), or wherever I might be on Sunday, there I was wont to break bread, though it might be only I, and Snooke and my wife might join. This I did (1831) at Ridgway, when I left Ireland and went to Devonshire for the work's (chiefly in the Gospel) sake.  G. V. W.

Note by Dr Cronin.

Having a very definite remembrance of things which took place anterior to all that is written by our beloved brother, J. G. B., concerning the ways of God toward us in the beginning of this movement, I would add a few remarks. I had been sent from the South of Ireland to Dublin for my health, and as a Dissenter (Independent) and a visitor, was received to communion by all the Dissenting bodies there.

This liberty was continued till it was found that I became resident in Dublin; I was then informed I could no longer be allowed to break bread with any of them without special membership with some one. That was the starting-point with me.

With the strong impression on my soul, though with little intelligence about it, that the Church of God was one, and that all that believed were members of that one Body, I firmly refused special membership. Thus left in separation from their tables for several months, and then feeling unable to attend their meetings from the growing feeling of opposition to one man ministry, I was left to the charge of irreligion and antinomianism. This affected me to such an extent, that it was a season of deep exercise of heart and separation from many that that I loved in the Lord; and to avoid the appearance of evil, I spent many a Lord's-day morning under a tree or under a haystack during the time of service.

My name having been publicly denounced from one of their pulpits (Rev. W. Cooper's), one of their deacons, Edward Wilson (Assistant Secretary to the Bible Society in Sackville Street, where he resided), was constrained to protest against this step, which led ultimately to his leaving also.

Thus separated, we two met for breaking of bread and prayer in one of his rooms, until his departure for England. I was not alone. The two Miss Drurys, my cousins, were led in the same path, and also left Mr C.'s chapel, where they were members (as also Mr Tims, bookseller, in Grafton Street), and met with us in the back parlour of my house in Lower Pembroke Street.

It then became noised abroad, and one and another became affected by the same truth, which really was the Oneness of the Body and the presence of the Holy Spirit, also seen by us very clearly. Here F. Hutchinson found us, and as we were becoming numerous, offered us the use of his large room in Fitzwilliam Square. At this time, dear J. G. B. and J. N. D. were more or less affected by the general state of things in the religious world, but were unprepared to come out into entire separation, and looked suspiciously at our movements, feeling still able to attend and minister in the Church of England as well as to come occasionally to our little assembly.

We soon began to feel, as humbler brethren were added to us, that the house in Fitzwilliam Square was unsuited, which led us to take a large auction room in Aungier Street for our use on Sundays. And oh! the blessed seasons to my soul with J. Parnell, W. Stokes, and others, while moving the furniture aside and laying the simple table with its bread and wine, on Saturday evenings — seasons of joy never to be forgotten — for surely we had the Master's smile and sanction in the beginning of such a movement as this was!

About this time G. V. W. paid us a visit from England, having some intention of joining the Mission party proposing to go to Baghdad. From that to my leaving Dublin (1830) there were continual additions of Evangelical Christians — all of us with very little intelligence as to the real character of God's movement amongst us. Special membership, as it is called amongst Dissenters, was the primary and most offensive condition of things to all our minds, so that our first assembling was really marked as a small company of Evangelical malcontents. We felt free up to this time and long afterwards to make arrangements amongst ourselves as to who should distribute the bread and wine and take other ministries in the assembly. We were also, from ignorance or indifference, careless as to conscience or godly care one for another. I am led the more to make the observation owing to the frequent way in which some of the early brethren, who are now in separation from us, accuse us of departure from first principles in our present meetings.

Nevertheless, I am convinced that even at that time we should no more have tolerated false doctrine, through God's grace, than now.

The comfort of the many who loved us, but were not with us, was our staunch orthodoxy as regards the mystery of the Godhead and the doctrine of grace and godliness.

I would remark here a feature in the ways of God in the beginning of this movement, on and through obscure individuals, and how in distant places and divers positions the substance of His grace and truth dwelt in us, and though, as I have said before, with little intelligence, led us in paths more or less agreeable to the mind of God. It is striking that those able and honoured brethren, J. G. B., J. N. D. and G. V. W. did not constitute the embryo of it, while God has used and, continued to use them in Divine intelligence and developing principles as to His Church, etc.

I have repeated somewhat as to this point, owing to the Church alluded to above, where as God's ways with us were and still are a gradual unfolding of His truth discovered to us in various practical details. So that which in the beginning was, as it were, no bigger than a man's hand when we were few in number and weak and defective in understanding, has expanded itself to meet the necessities of thousands gathered on the same principles, and to the praise of glory of His grace. Edward Cronin. July, 1871.

Remarks by Mr Stoney.

I first knew the Brethren in 1833. I had, in anxiety to serve the Lord, given up going to the Bar in order to take orders, thinking it the only true way of doing so. I at first very reluctantly went to hear at Aungier Street, but my "chum" in college, a Mr Clarke, was a constant attendant (since gone over to Irvingism).

I was eventually much interested in the teaching there. I partially remember Mr Darby on being "Accepted in the beloved," and Mr Bellett on Mark 5; but I did not think of joining them — I was expecting great things from Mr Irving. Mr Bellett brought Mr Benjamin Newton to see me in my rooms in college, in order to disabuse my mind of Irvingism. I was constantly hearing of J. N. D., and at length heard him on Joshua 7: "Wherefore liest thou upon the ground? Up, sanctify the people." Get rid of the evil first, God cannot be with us until we are separated from the evil. I was broken down. I felt for the first time the immense step of leaving the Established order for the unsightly few in Aungier Street. This was in June, 1834.

I asked Mr Darby to let me come until I saw something better, for he was not quite sure he was right; but I was convinced the Church of England was wrong.

At that time Mr Stokes used to read regularly some portions of Scripture every Lord's day, and at Plymouth, where I was in 1838, it used to be arranged beforehand who should break the bread and do official acts.

I was at the meeting at Lady Powerscourt's in September, 183-. Mr John Synge was in the chair. He called on each to speak on a given subject. Mr Darby spoke last, and for hours, touching on all that had been previously said. Mr Wigram sat next to him. Captain Hall, Mr George Curzon, Sir Alex. Campbell, Mr Bellett, Mr Thomas Mansell, Mr Mahon,

Mr Edward Syne were there. There were clergymen present and Irvingites.

The prayer meetings in the mornings at seven o'clock were particularly striking to me, every one praying that the Lord would give them light, and grace to act on it.

There was great feeling against J. N. D. when I came out, because of the secessions at Oxford about that time, so much so, that it was notified to me that both Dr Saddler and Dr Singer had conferred on the propriety of taking my rooms from me, because I had asked Mr Darby to lecture in them.

Those with Irvingite tendencies gradually drew away from us and their society was avoided.  J. B. Stoney.  July 12th, 1871.

Copy of a Letter from J. G. Bellett to J. N. Darby.

1st September, 1864.

My DEAREST JOHN,-It seems to myself that I am quietly sinking under the effects of pleuro-pneumonia, as the faculty speak.

I may never see you again, my dearest Brother, but I would tell you as from a dying bed how deeply from my heart and soul I bless the Lord that He ever revealed to me the truth which Brethren have received from Him. I was quickened — it was a feeble operation — in the year 1817, as I was reading a book for my next examination; but how did my soul battle on for years!

I came to know you, not slightly as before, but in an apprehension that instinctively bound me to you, and this now for forty years has never abated. What do I owe the God of my eternal life for feeding and strengthening that life, and enlarging its capacities through your ministry, in secret and in public! I have loved you as I suppose, in a certain sense, I have loved no other, and now, after so long a time, we are found together, still in the dear fellowship of the same confession.

I need not tell you of the love of the Brethren, and of the care I get at home from the servants, and my dear, dear, child. So as to that I am in a wealthy place: nor will I speak much of myself, but I cannot say less than this — I never had the same peaceful, happy rest in Christ. To depart and be with Him indeed I count to be far better. I am happier than I ever was.

I have reviewed my ministry, and surely have detected vanity and, self-pleasing. But oh! He has told me He has forgiven it all. But it is a poor thing to have no fruit of service to take to Him — at least, so I speak.

I told a Church of England saint how I still held to the truth as most precious which I learnt some thirty years ago: and, dearest John, only think, in contrast with it, of offices and ordinances and prayers and clergy!

The Lord be with thee, my dearest Brother, while you assert and adorn the doctrine.

I was sorry at your reference in that very edifying word "Law and Righteousness," to Mr Simeon. People will say it was stabbing in the dark, but I know you judged in the fear of God that His Spirit guided you. J. G. B.

Christ a Reprover

Christ a Reprover.

Proverbs 25: 12.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 17, 1890, p. 216.

(From hitherto unpublished notes.)

It is blessed as well as happy to mark the characteristics of the Lord's ministry, for His ministry is the witness of what He Himself is, and He is the witness of what God is, and we thus reach God through the paths of the Lord's walk or ministry here. Every step of that way becomes important to us. All that He did and said was but a real, truthful expression of something of Himself; as He Himself was nothing less than a real, truthful expression of God. He that saw Him saw the Father; and he that understands the character of His ministry, or can reach the moral glory that attaches to each moment of His walk and service here, learns what He is, and thus learns what God is.

Among other moral glories which shine in Him, look at that which marks Him as a rebuker or reprover.

When He was exposing the Pharisees, whom worldliness had set in opposition to Him, He speaks solemnly and peremptorily — "He that is not with me is against me." But when He alludes to those who were owning Him in their affections and in their testimony, but had not, perhaps, that strength of faith that set them in full company with Him, He speaks in other terms — "He that is not against us is for us." (See Matthew 12 and Luke 9.)

When Peter was moved by the spirit of the world (though he was full of amiable feelings and care touching the Lord Himself) the Lord exposes him on the moment with unsparing decision: "Get thee behind me, Satan." But when John Baptist sent a message to Him which was a reproach to Him, and betrayed the wrong, injurious thoughts which he had respecting Him, the Lord rebukes him, it is true, but with marked consideration. He returns a message to him which none but John himself could estimate, none other could feel the point and pungency of it: "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me." Even John's disciples who carried the messages between them could not have understood this. They were not aware, I may say, how their master had been feeling, and Jesus would not expose their master to them. He would expose John to himself, but not to them, any more than to the multitude afterwards, in whose eye He strikingly sets off John, by — painting, as it were, several dark grounds on which to present John in very lively and beautiful light under their eye. (Matt. 11.) Again, the disciples going to Emmaus He rebukes in a very peculiar way. He addresses a sharp word to them: "O fools, and slow of heart to believe." For unbelief in the fact of the resurrection was a high offence against God in several ways. But in spite of their unbelief, these disciples personally desired Christ. Their hearts affected Him, and He valued that, though connected with their unbelief. And therefore while He rebuked, He warmed and blessed them. He spoke sharply to their ear, but He kindled their hearts.

And how duly and rightly does He measure out different rebukes to Thomas and to other disciples after the resurrection! Thomas exceeded. It was no common character of unbelief which he betrayed, and accordingly it must be no common style of rebuking that he must listen to. But with others it is in softer terms. Again we see the Lord as a rebuker, as between the two and the ten in Matthew 20. But how does He conduct the rebuke there? He tempers it because of the good and the right that was in them whom He had to rebuke, and in this He distinguishes Himself from His disciples. The ten brethren were ministering unqualified condemnation on the two, but the Lord evidently takes knowledge of a something that was right in them, and accordingly tempers or measures His rebuke, and takes a place apart from His heated disciples, who would not have spared their brethren in anywise, and indeed puts the ten and the two on the same level at last.

See the Lord again as a rebuker of John in the case of his forbidding those who were casting out devils in Christ's name, and yet not following with Christ's disciples. At that moment John's spirit had been chastening him. In the light of the Lord's preceding words he had been making some 'discovery of the mistake he had before committed, and he refers to that mistake, though the Lord had not in the least alluded to it. We may say, after the manner of men, He had not known it. But this being so, John having already a sense of his mistake, and artlessly letting out the vanities of it under force of the light that had revealed it to him, the Lord deals with it in the greatest gentleness. (See Luke 9: 46-50.) There is something very admirable in this, as I judge and feel. And, indeed, when we consider all this moral variety in the action and way of Christ as a rebuker, there is something of excellence and glory in it that is beautiful. Whether His style be peremptory or gentle, sharp or considerate, whether rebuke be so reduced as to be scarcely a rebuke at all, or so heightened as almost to be a kind of repulse and disclaimer, still, when the occasion is duly weighed, all this variety will be found to be but perfection.

I speak here of the Lord's dealing with His own; but with the adversaries or the world, His rebuke of such was not properly for correction, but in judgment. I scarcely call these instances rebukes, they are exposure and condemnation, and I am not looking at them here. Other instances of the Lord's actions in this character will, of course, be found in the narratives of the four gospels. But these may put us on the enquiry, and the enquiry may put us in contact with some fresh power and light of that moral glory, as we speak, which in its divers rays and shinings constitutes the character of this stainless, perfect Son of man. All these His rebukes or reproofs were "earrings of gold" and "ornaments of fine gold" of themselves, and commonly we may hope hung upon "obedient ears." (Prov. 25: 12.) J. G. B.

Restoration and Communion

Restoration and Communion.

Christian Friend vol. 19, 1892, p. 182.

This paper, taken from an old publication, is assigned to J. G. B. — if truly — the style is different from many of his writings.

I suppose there is no better test of the extent of our rest in Christ, and sense of what He is in Himself, than seclusion from everything else, and every one else. One learns in a sleepless night how much real resource and company one has in Him. Alas! we turn to Him more as we would to natural food, to support and revive us, than to the One "in whom we live, and move, and have our being." "I live, yet not I; but Christ liveth in me."

It is not that I can engage in my own pursuits and interests, and, when exhausted (like a labouring man seeking his meals and then rest), turn then to Christ to supply with heavenly cheer and strength. It is quite true that He does do this; but the soul will find that His ministry to it is very different when it turns to Him after being soiled with the care, and business, and plans of this life; and when it turns to Him for re-invigoration and repose, after it has been trying and seeking, however feebly, to live out Christ in every relation of life, and as one exhausted and oppressed with inability, turning to Him as the source of life and strength. Plainly the former lives two lives, the latter only one. The former probably would argue that there are duties and engagements devolving on him among men, which he was bound to attend to sedulously. This I do not deny; but if they cannot bring Christ into them, if they cannot make Him companion and Lord in them, it is plain that they live where He does not, or rather, where He is shut out. Hence they must live a life of their own. I am then at my own disposal, not at the Lord's. In the latter case, I am entirely at His disposal, feeling that I am His, sensible continually how feeble I am; but always insisting that this is my only true course — to be His.

It is not that I give this or that to Him. He is before me in everything. If I talk or arrange for my family (alas! how little one knows it), He is the One present who is first to be considered, how He would like things to be, etc., and they are determined accordingly. I think you will find there is a great difference in the way the former and latter receive from Christ; and in the seclusion and loneliness of solitude we at ordinary times discover who has been prominent with us, Himself or ourselves.

Hence, in God's wisdom and love, prolonged times of seclusion are imposed on us, in order to expose to us, and teach us, the extent of our satisfaction in, and occupation with, Christ Himself. If I wander into my own plans and arrangements here, and to my duties where Christ is left out, I shall find, on turning to Him, that there is delay to enjoyment of Him. The light is clearing the clouds away before the entrancing scenery is disclosed. I may and do feel that I am divinely dealt with, and this is a cheer to a wandering heart, though certainly not to a devoted one. The devoted one seeks to know something more of Him, and this is not imparted to the one only enjoying restoration. I do not say that restoration is not most blessed — it is so; but it is nothing in comparison to the communication of His own mind, which is made to the devoted one, and which he seeks. True, the restored one enjoys the power of the light in freeing him from all uncleanness; but the devoted one passes into the region where He is not a stranger, and looks and listens for His voice, and hence grows in the knowledge of Him. Seclusion continually leads the soul into this; and often has it to bless the Lord for such a time, when it has begun to learn such nearness to Christ, and tasted, to the great joy of the heart, the greatness of His resources.

Musings on the Apocalypse

Musings on the Apocalypse.

J. G. Bellett.

(Last published by Twilight Publications, N.J., USA.)

The opening of this wondrous book gives us its title and character — "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him." For it will be found, I judge, to be a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in such characters of glory and power as He derives from God, or a revelation of Him in the exercise of judicial authority.

Now two exercises of judicial authority awaited Him after He had ascended to God, and accordingly this book has two parts.

Revelation 1 - 3 give us the first part. The Lord is here exercising judgment in the Church, or among the lights of the sanctuary. This is called "the things which are."

Revelation 4 - 22 give us the second part. The Lord is here exercising judgment in the earth, preparing it for His kingdom. This is called "the things which shall be hereafter" (or, after these).

This is the general order of the book, but these two parts contain properly both a preface and a conclusion.

In the preface (Rev. 1: 1-8) we first learn that this wondrous book deals with "the word of God" and "the testimony of Jesus Christ"; that is, God's counsels made known by Jesus Christ. Then we are told the manner in which Jesus Christ ministers this testimony to the churches, and blessing is then pronounced on him who acts righteously by this book, by either reading or hearing it, and then by keeping the things which are written in it.

After this the seven churches in Asia are called to listen. and after a benediction on them, the Lord Jesus Christ is announced as the One who is about to come "with clouds," or in the solemnities of judgment. (Dan. 7: 13; Matt. 24: 30; Matt. 26: 64) A coming quite according to the judicial character of the book. and which is to make the kindreds of the earth wail because of Him, and them which pierced Him to see Him to their confusion.

But in the midst of such an announcement of the Lord as even this, the saints have two sweet and happy utterances put into their lips. On His being here revealed as "the Faithful Witness," "the First-begotten from the dead." and "the Prince of the kings of the earth," they praise Him as the One who had loved them. And again, when His coming in the clouds as for judgment is announced, they invite His glory with full confidence still, and say, "Even so, Amen." For they have thoroughly learned that they may have boldness even in a day of judgment. (1 John 4: 17) Then, when these utterances of the saints pass by, the Lord reveals Himself as the First and the Last — a title which He frequently takes in this book — the very title, too, that He so constantly assumes when judging the idols of Babylon in Isaiah (see Isaiah 48), all this still assuring us that He is now about to speak in judgment again. In the mouth indeed of every witness here we learn that this book is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, which God, not the Father, gives Him; or. in judgment. not in grace. But this is only here at the close of the volume of the New Testament; for I may observe that the Lord has ever sought, so to speak, to publish His name in grace before He does so in judgment.

In some way or other He will and must make Himself known, for that is His glory; but He seeks the rather to be known in goodness than in judgment, if men will hear. We have this variously illustrated. To Egypt, for instance, the Lord made Himself known in Joseph, the witness of His goodness; for by Joseph He filled Egypt's storehouses with all kinds of wealth. But Egypt forgot Joseph. A king arose then who persecuted Joseph's people, and said of his God, "Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?" Then the Lord had to publish His name in that land in Judgment, saying to the king, "In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod." He was now to be made known, not in Joseph, but in plagues.

So in Israel afterwards. The Lord Jesus Christ was offered to them as "the chief cornerstone, the sure foundation," the One in whom they should find salvation and strength; but being rejected as such, he was to be revealed to them as "the head stone of the corner," in the power and judgment of an exalted stone, which was to fall and grind to powder.

And so in the world now. This present dispensation is publishing God in grace, He is beseeching men to be reconciled. But they who will not thus know Him, neglecting "the great salvation," must know Him, by and by in judgments. (2 Thess. 1: 8) If the blood of the Lamb be despised, the wrath of the Lamb must await. (Rev. 6: 16, 17) The same One who is "full of grace and truth" now, will by and by send the sword out of His mouth to execute judgment. (Rev. 19: 15) And this is the difference between the Gospel and the Revelation by St. John. The Gospel publishes the name of the Lord in grace, the Revelation in judgment. The one flows from the Father, the other from God. Now according to all this, when we pass the preface and get into the body of the book, it is the Lord, the Son of Man in the place of judgment, that we at once see. (See Rev. 1: 9-20)

These verses introduce the first scene which the book discloses, and here St. John sees the Lord as High Priest prepared to judge the sanctuary. He does not show Himself to John as the Priest at the golden altar, with the censer and the burning incense, but at the candlestick with the golden snuffers, as though He were inquiring, and that too for the last time, whether or not the lamps of the sanctuary would burn worthy of the place, or whether He should not be compelled soon to remove them. It is the Son of man, with garments down to the foot, and golden girdle about His loins, with head and hair white as wool, eyes of flame, feet of brass, and voice of many waters, in His hand holding the seven stars, and in His mouth the two-edged sword, and walking in the brightness and power of the midday sun, among the seven candlesticks. All this was an expression of judgment "of the house of God," a revelation of the Priest, not at the altar with incense, not even at the candlestick with oil to feed it, but at the candlestick with the snuffers to judge and trim it, as being out of order. John shall hear himself personally and individually addressed with the wonted words of God's sweet love to us, "Fear not"; but still this is a vision that may well make the stoutest of the children of men to fall as dead.

And it is quite according to such an introduction as this that we find our Lord in the following scene. (Rev. 2: 1) Here it is the Lord in "the house of God" challenging the churches to answer for themselves. He had before set them in the blessing, and now He looks for fruit. It is as though He had heard a report of their unfaithfulness, and was now saying unto them, "How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward." He had already communicated with them through the apostles, but now he does so through the angels. St. Paul addressed them in the pastoral grace of Christ; St. John now addresses them as from the judicial authority of Christ. The apostles had fed them and disciplined them as in the place of dependence, but now these epistles challenge them as in the place of responsibility, and the moment they are thus addressed they are found wanting as candlesticks bound to shine to the praise of Him who had set them in His sanctuary. They are now visited, and the common result of all such visitations of God's stewards may tell us the end of the candlesticks also.

For the crisis or judgment has always found man unready. Whether planted in innocency, in a sphere of providence, or under a ministration of grace, man has been found unequal even to hold a blessing. "Adam, where art thou?" got this answer, "I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself" The vineyard of Israel afterwards should have yielded its fruit to Him who had planted and dressed it, but when He came it was only wild grapes that He found. And so it is now with the candlesticks in the house of God. They had been duly prepared by God's care. They were nothing less than golden candlesticks, churches fed by the Spirit, blessed with blessings from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, made fully furnished and well ordered lights in the sanctuary. But now that the visitation is made, in due season too, the Son of man finds something unsuited to the Holy place. These seven churches (the seven fold or perfect expression of the church) are here challenged by the Son of man with these words, "I know thy works," but the seven fold light is but dim and uncertain. This steward of God's glory is but unfaithful also. And so by and by the same inquisition will be made of "the earthly gods," the Gentile powers to whom the Lord has committed the sword, and they will then in like manner as Adam, Israel, or the candlesticks, be found wanting, and they will have to fall as men and die like one of the princes. (Psalm 82) All the stewards are thus found wanting, when weighed in the balance, and the Lord is justified in His saying and clear when He judges.

These seven churches are here as in the place of this judgment. There were, it is true, other congregations of the Lord at the time, but these seven are enough to exhibit the judgment, for seven is completeness. So some of them may be found by this judgment or visitation in a better condition than others; but still the Son of man* sees the whole thing far different from what it ought to be. One was not judged in the other, but each was responsible for itself, and thus some maintained their purity longer then others. But still the whole tone of this visitation bears with it a notice of what the end speedily was to be. As in our day we see it, for Philadelphia and Smyrna are now as fully removed candlesticks as Sardis or Pergamos.

*The Son of man is the Lord's title here (Rev. 1: 13), and that belongs to Him in Judgment. (John 5: 27)

These challenges of the churches by the Son of man lead us to see that all was then nearly over, that there was but a step between such rebukes and their removal. And, surely, we do not in our day need to be told of the disturbance which has taken place in the house of God. We learn that Adam lost Eden, and the present groans of creation tell us so. We learn that Israel lost Canaan, and their present wanderings over the earth tell us so. And how see we the sanctuary? Are we not witnesses to ourselves that we have been no more able to hold the blessing which was ours, than Adam could hold Eden, or Israel Canaan? The candlestick that was set for the rebuking of all that was without as darkness, and for being itself the embodied and well ordered light of the world, is not now at Ephesus, or even Sardis. But where is anything like it? Can any one thing, in any one place, assert the honour of being the Lord's candle there, and show that the Lord is feeding, and judging, and trimming it as such? In this day of St. John the Lord still owned the candlesticks, owned them by thus visiting and judging them. But is there such recognition now? We may try out ways most surely by all that is here said to the churches, but this does not amount to the Son of man owning us by judgment. And our first duty therefore, both in grace and wisdom, is to be humbled because of this; for though we may have much in fragments that belongs to the candlesticks, yet all that does not give us the standing and privilege of the candlestick entitling us to set aside as darkness, and as not of the sanctuary, all that is not of ourselves.

When our fidelity to the Lord became the question, we were found wanting, as any other steward. This book will, at the end, show us that the question of the Lord's fidelity to us will be answered in the other way; for, as the Lamb's wife the Church will then be found to survive all the judgments, though here she could not as the candlestick stand the righteous challenge of the Lord. And this is man — and this is God always; shame and ruin mark our end — honour and peace, and everlasting truth and love, the end of the Lord. And in this shame and ruin, I believe, these three chapters close; the perfect order of the seven lights of the house of God is gone, not to be restored; and according to this, the prophet is at once called to see other things and other places, to witness another scene, but still a scene of judgment, as we shall find; not that of the priestly Son of man in His temple, but that of God and the Lamb in the earth.

But this judgment is delayed till all the fore-known family have come in; for God's long-suffering is salvation (2 Peter 3: 15). The fulness of the Gentiles must come in, and all be brought to the knowledge of the Son of God. (Rom. 11: 25; Eph. 4: 13) Therefore, before we are led in our prophet to behold this second scene of judgment, or the judgment of the earth, we are given, I believe, a sight of the Church in heaven,* under the symbols of the living creatures, and crowned elders round the throne; so that the rapture of the saints into the air had taken place at some untold moment between the times of our third and fourth chapters.

*The twenty-four elders no doubt represent the whole company of the redeemed in glory from Adam down to the rapture, and not the Church exclusively. — Ed.

But here I would pause a little. We have not, I am aware, this ascension of the saints actually presented here. We learn it in the appointed Scripture (1 Thess. 4), and that rapture will lead both to the Lord Himself and then to the Father. But it is not these results that we get here. It is not the saints, either in the Lord's presence, or in the mansions of the Father's house, that we see here, but the Church before the throne of God Almighty, of Him who was, and is, and is to come, for whose pleasure all things were created. This is the scene we get here. It is not the children before the Father, but the Church in dignity before the throne.

But how perfect is the wisdom of God in appointing all the reasons for revealing His mind and purposes! A view of the Father's house would not have been in character here, for this is the book, not of consolation for the children of the Father, but of judgment by which God and the Lamb are asserting their holy rights, vindicating their own praise, and delivering the long-usurped and corrupted inheritance out of the hands of its destroyers. The Gospel by St. John conducts us to the Father's house; our path there ends, as the path of children, in that house of love; but this Apocalypse by St. John gives us the action that gets the golden city ready for us, and our path here ends, as the path of heirs, in that place of glory; for both are ours, the joys of children, and the dignity of heirs; the house of the Father, and the throne of the Son.

Here then, when taken into vision of heavenly things, it is the throne of God with its due attendants, and not the Father's house with the children, that we see. It is the throne of God Almighty, Creator and Ruler of all things, around which is, therefore, thrown the holy pledge of the earth's covenanted security. And it is the place, too, from which the subsequent action of the book, or the judgment of the earth, flows; and, therefore, lightnings and thunders, and voices (the symbols of these judgments), here issue from it. And it is the throne, also, which is to rule the world to come, or the kingdom at the end. And, therefore, the seven spirits (the symbol of that energy by which that kingdom is to be maintained, Isaiah 11: 1-3), are here seen before it; and in connection with this government of the kingdom, or "world to come," we see the Church in the symbol of the living creatures and elders also around it. But as to this wondrous subject of the living creatures, or the cherubim, I would observe a little more particularly. Whenever we see them throughout Scripture, they are always attendants upon the throne of God; always reflecting by their action, or attitude, the mind and ways of Him who sits there.*

*They were therefore, I judge, made out of one piece of gold with the throne itself. (See Exodus 25: 19)

1. Thus they are seen at the gate of Eden, with a flaming sword, because there the Lord was expressing His own unrepenting righteousness in the law, driving, as He then was, the sinner out of His place.

2. Thus also they are seen over the mercy seat in the holiest, with fixed, delighted gaze, inquiring into the secrets of that throne of grace, because there the Lord was expressing His work in Jesus, the fixedness of His purpose, and joy in the gospel of His dear Son. (Exodus 25: 20; 1 Peter 1: 12)

3. Thus also they are seen with unfolded wings under the God of Israel (Ezek. 1), because then the Lord of Israel was about to leave His sanctuary, the apostasy of His people having disturbed His rest in Jerusalem. And they are here also seen reaching out their hands to take fire to cast it over the city, for then the Lord had commanded the judgment of its sins.

4. Thus also. as here, they are seen round the throne, still attending on it, to celebrate the praise of Him who sits there, and do His will, and learn His mind; still, therefore, reflecting His mind and ways. But in this last place of the cherubim we observe a distinction of great importance. Hitherto, or in the first three instances, they were angelic, because the law had been ordained by angels. (Gal. 3: 19) With delight the angels inquired into the mysteries of Christ (1 Peter 1: 12), and the angels waited on the Lord of Israel. (Isaiah 6: 2) But now the cherubim, or attendants on the throne, have become human. because "the world to come" is to be made subject to man and not to angels (Heb. 2: 5), and this throne in Rev. 4 is the throne that is by and by to preside over "the world to come."

But this is glorious and wonderful. Poor sinners redeemed by blood are destined, through grace, to take the cherubic dignity and joy in which angels, unfallen angels, once stood; the angels themselves falling back, as it were. and opening their ranks to let redeemed sinners in, and then to take their own place around them as well as around the throne itself (Rev. 7).

Angels are thus passed by and the seed of Abraham taken up, and it is blessed to know that angels themselves take delight in this. They desire to look into this mystery. God manifest in the flesh is seen of them. (1 Tim. 3: 16) Their own joy is enhanced by all this, for by it they have learned more of the shinning and gracious ways of Him who created them, as He has redeemed us, and on whom they as we depend. Beggars from the dunghill are set as among princes round the throne. The living creatures and the crowned elders accordingly, never, in the whole action of this wondrous book, move out of heaven, but there abide, either in the intelligence of the mind of God, or in authority under the throne, or in the holy office of leading the joy of creation. (See chaps. 5, 6, 7, 11, 15, 19) They abide in their sphere on high while the action proceeds on earth.* Such I judge to be the throne with its attributes and attendants. It is the throne of the Creator and Upholder of all things, from which is to go forth the judgments which are to clear the earth of its corrupters and destroyers, and then to have connection with the redeemed earth in "the world to come."

*There was something like this order of living creatures and crowned elders in Israel; I mean in the way in which the ark was attended. The priests and the Levites surrounded the ark in a nearer and smaller circle, and then the twelve tribes (on each side three) encompassed it in a larger and more distant circle or square; thus the one had more intimacy with it than the other, as here the order of living creatures, elders, and angelic hosts around the throne. (see Numbers 1 - 4)

But the throne being thus seen, and God's glory and pleasure as Creator and Governor of all things being thus celebrated, the question arises, Who can He seat on the throne with Himself? "Who shall ascend into the hi11* of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place?" The earth and its fullness is the Lord's by the title of creation here celebrated, and owned in Psalm 24; but it was His pleasure of old to set His image over these works of His hand. Adam was given dominion, but Adam lost his place, and forfeited his kingdom. Who then shall reassume the dignity, again ascend the hill of the Lord? Who is he whom the Lord God can reinstate in Adam's forfeited lordship? That now becomes the question, and accordingly it is raised in Rev. 5, immediately after the exhibition of the supreme throne in Rev. 4, and the answer to it from every quarter is this: "The Lamb that was slain, the Lion of the tribe of Judah." He who sat on the throne joins to give that answer by letting the book pass from His hand into that of the Lamb. The living creatures and elders join in giving it by singing their song of gladness in the prospect of the earth being soon the scene of their glory; the hosts of angels join in giving it, by now ascribing all strength, and glory, and faculty for dominion to the Lamb. Every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, and such as are in the sea, in their order and measure join in giving it, by uniting the name of the Lamb with that of their Creator and Lord, and they all at once feel as though their groans were already turned into praises, for as soon as Adam fell creation was sensitive of the cause, and became "a prisoner of hope" (Rom. 8: 20-22); but now that the Lamb takes the book, she becomes at once equally sensitive of deliverance, and glories in the liberty of the children of God. Thus is the question settled in heaven.

*See Psalm 24. A hill is a symbol of government (Psalm 2: 6; Isaiah 2: 2)

The title of the Lamb to take dominion in the earth is owned and verified in the very place where alone all power and dominion or office could righteously be had, in the presence of the throne in heaven, for "power belongeth to God." Messiah owns that in Psalm 62, and here He again owns it by taking the book out of His hand, for that is an action which confesses on the part of the Lamb, that powers are ordained of God, that the Lord in heaven is the foundation of office. Thus it is in heaven. and from the Ancient of days, that the Son of man takes dominion. and the nobleman receives his kingdom. (Dan. 7; Luke 19) Jesus would not take power from the god of this world (Matt. 4: 9, 10), nor would he take it from the heated desire of the people. (John 6: 15) He waits to take it (for then alone it could be righteously received) from the hand of the God of heaven and earth, from whom Adam had of old received it. And as the Lamb here owns God on the throne to be the source of power, so God on the throne owns the Lamb to be His ordinance of power.

This action of taking the book has this concord of sweet sounds in it, for the Lamb goes up to receive it, and the Lord allows it to pass from His hand. God's glory as supreme and only potentate is thus vindicated, and He commits power in the earth again to the hand of man, as fully sanctioning it then, and all the exercise of it, as of old He did in Adam, delighting again in this other image and likeness of himself. And this governs all the subsequent action of this wondrous book, for the title to the kingdom being thus approved in the due place and from, it only remains to clothe that title with possession. The inheritance is the Lamb's by purchase of blood; that blood sealed Him as the fully obedient One, and therefore God could thus highly exalt Him (Phil. 2), and that blood had also reconciled all things in heaven and earth. (Col. 1) And the inheritance being therefore thus purchased, He has now only to redeem it. His blood as the Lamb slain had given Him the title to it; His strength as the Lion of the tribe of Judah must now give Him possession of it.

In Israel there was the ordinance of redeeming the inheritance, as well as the heir or person. (Lev. 25) If either an Israelite or his possession had been sold, it was both his kinsman's duty and right to ransom him and it; now Jesus has approved Himself our kinsman in both ways. The Son of God became the Son of man, and thus showed His kinsman nature. He died to purchase us and our inheritance by blood, and thus showed His kinsman love, and in this book of the Revelation we get Him, I judge, perfecting His acts as such kinsman, and redeeming our inheritance out of the hand of its corrupters. The kinsman in Israel had title to redeem the inheritance, but then he had to do it on condition of discharging the debt that was on it. Jesus has paid His blood. a full and more than adequate value, as is here owned; for the book, or title to the redeemed possession, passes into His hand, and hence the action flows. But the usurper of the inheritance is still to be removed, the enemy to be made the kinsman's footstool. and whether the action be properly that of God, or that of the Lamb himself, the character of the action, I judge, is equally clear and certain. The action is the redemption of the inheritance flowing from the Lord's acknowledged title. The book taken by the Lamb is the title deed; and that it is so, and not a book of instruction to Him as the prophet of the Church, or any thing but this title deed that concerns the Church's inheritance of the earth, appears to me from several considerations.

First. Because it lay in the hand of God Almighty; the Creator of all things, before He receives it.

Second. Because it is taken by the Lord as the Lamb slain, and as the Lion of Judah, characters of purchase and strength.

Third. Because on the taking of it, the Church sings in prospect of her dominion over the earth. The angels who had been previously ministers of power in the earth, then transfer all that to the Lamb. and creation ends her groans in praises.

These witnesses establish in my mind the character of the book which the lamb takes, and the book of the Revelation is in concord with this.

It is the history of the redemption of the inheritance; I mean, of course, the second part of it, after the third chapter. It is the Joshua of the New Testament. It occupies the same place in the history of the acts of the Lord in the New Testament, as that book of Joshua does of the acts of the Lord in the Old. It records the manner of redeeming the inheritance, as that did, and without his acts as recorded in Joshua, the Lord's ways in old time would have been imperfect.

He had redeemed the heir out of Egypt by the hand of Moses, educated and trained him in the wilderness, and thus prepared him for rest in Canaan, but He had still to redeem Canaan out of the hand of the Amorite, and this act of His is recorded in Joshua. Then, but not till then, the Lord went through the whole course of His mercy and strength; and so without the Book of the Revelation, the record of the Lord's acts would in like manner have been incomplete. The Gospels and the Epistles tell us, like the Book of Moses, of the redemption of the heir and of his education in the wilderness of this present evil world, but now it is this closing Book of Revelation that tells us of the redemption of the inheritance, and thus properly closes and completes the perfect acts of the Lord in behalf of the Church of God.*

*If no kinsman were found able or willing to redeem the inheritance. it returned to the heir in the jubilee. The Lord of Israel thus kept in His own hand the means of restoring all things. He acted as Lord of the soil, and said the Land was His. (Lev. 25: 23) He created as it were a tenantry for forty-nine years, in the fiftieth year resuming the land, and then settling it anew on His family according to His own mind. And so with this earth, of which the land of Israel was the sample; man may take it into his own hand for a time, and by his covetousness on the one hand, or idle habits on the other, disturb God's order in it. But a day is coming, the promised and expected jubilee, the time of the restitution of all things, and then the earth shall be brought back to God again, and He will resettle it on His family according to His own holy and righteous principles. I might here observe that sacrifices may be allowed among the Jews in the kingdom, to keep in memory the blood of the Lamb which was the price and purchase of the kingdom.

But the day of vengeance is united with the year of the redeemed (Isa. 63: 4; Isa. 34: 8; Isa. 61: 2); and accordingly the redemption of the inheritance is conducted by judgments, of vengeance on the enemies of the Heir of it, its usurpers and corrupters, as therefore from henceforth in this book (until the inheritance is redeemed, until the kingdom is brought in) it is judgment that is proceeding (Rev. 6 - 19). It may be seals that are opened, trumpets blown, or vials emptied, but all is preparing the inheritance for the Lamb of the Church. All is action for the redeeming of it, and bringing it into the hand of Him into whose hand the title deed of it, as we have seen, has already passed. And according to this, on His beginning this action, He receives both a bow and a crown; the one signifying that He was now going forth to judge and make war, the other that that warfare was to end in the kingdom. As is said to Him in another scripture, "Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O most mighty," and then, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." (Psalm 45)

Thus it is henceforth a book of judgments, as it has been hitherto, only judgments in another end, not of the candlesticks. but of the earth and its corrupters. Judgment had begun at the house of God, and now ends with those who would not obey the gospel. One enemy may appear after another, the beast, and the false prophet, the dragon, the great whore, or the kings of the earth, but it is only that each, in his season, may meet the judgment of the Lord. So there may be sorrow after sorrow — the woman may have to fly into the wilderness — the remnant of her seed to feel the rage of the dragon, and those who refuse to take the mark of the beast to know and exercise the patience of the saints, and the two witnesses to lie slain in the street of the great city; but all this sorrow is only leading on to the rest of the kingdom, or to the descent of the Golden City. The inheritance is thus redeemed by judgments out of hands of its corrupters, and then the righteous nations that have kept the truth enter. But in all this action, I judge, the Church has no place; but that the saints have been taken to meet their Lord in the air before it begins. This scene is one of judgment, and they have been removed, like Enoch, to another altogether. And I would now suggest a few reasons on which I ground this conclusion, as I did before for my conclusions on the character of the sealed book.

First. The saints are seen round the throne in heaven; or, as I have already noticed, in Rev. 4, and throughout the book onward from that, they are never seen but there; and this leads me to judge that the Church has been removed from the earth at some untold moment, between the time of chapters 3 and 4, as I have already said.

Second. At the opening of this action, Rev. 6, the same signs are given as had before been given by the Lord Himself to His Jewish remnant (Matt. 24) respecting the end of the world; and as in all that prophecy the Church is not contemplated, so do I judge that she is not contemplated here, but that it is the faithful Jewish election who are engaged in this action, as they only are considered in that prophecy.

Third. The judgments begin with Rev. 6, but as Joshua of old did not begin his wars till the redemption and discipline of the people were ended. and they were taken out of the wilderness, so, do I judge, will not the action of chapter 6 begin till the rapture of the saints, which closes the discipline of the Church and takes her out of the wilderness, is over.

Fourth. It is a scene of judgment. as I have already noticed, and the calling of the Church is that of Enoch, to be taken out of it, and not like Noah preserved in it. (See 1 Thess. 4 and 2 Thess. 2).

From such considerations I do conclude that the Church is not mixed up in the scene which now lies before us. They have been taken into their more immediate inheritance, which is in heaven (1 Peter 1: 4), which is to them the passage of the Jordan, before these judgments on the corrupters of the earth, the mystic Amorites of Canaan, begin. These scenes are the wars of our Joshua — a remnant like Rahab is delivered out of the defiled place after they begin; but the saints have passed into their inheritance, though the whole of it is not yet subdued; and through these chapters (6 - 19) they wait in the house of the Father for it. But I do not particularly notice these chapters; indeed I do not believe that we are competent to speak of them with authority. We may draw much warning and exhortation from them, which we should lay deeply to heart as being that which the Lord would continually say to us, in order that we may stand in any evil day that may arise, as arise it may, to try and sift us at any hour. But of the scenes themselves I would not speak with authority. The Lord in them is clad with zeal as a cloak, the day of vengeance being in His heart, and the year of His redeemed having come, and onward thus He travels in the greatness of His strength till He couches in His kingdom as the Lion of Judah. The true day of Jericho, and of Ai, of the valley Ajalon, and of the waters of Merom, are here fought till the earth gets rest from war, and the people of the Lord dwell again in sure and quite habitation.*

*This book exhibits the same union as Isaiah 63: 4, for it gives, as I judge, the day of vengeance, and also the year of the redeemed, or the ransom of the true Israel.

However gloomy the way may be, this is the end of it, the end that we reach in this book.

The action was the judgment of the corrupters of the earth, and its result is the holy occupation of it by the Lord and His saints. The ways of our Joshua end in victory and the kingdom. The bow led to the crown. (Rev. 20: 1-6) "I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given unto them."

But before I hasten thus to the result of all this action, I would further observe, that in the progress of this action itself, we see, I believe, the deliverance of Jewish remnants from amid both the corruption and the judgment. Some of them suffer for righteousness even unto death, and then ascend to heaven to take their place on the sea of glass before the throne, and some are hid as in a city of refuge through the sorrow, sealed or measured for final security, and a place on the earth, or footstool of the royal Son of man. But in both ways they are separated from the corruption and the judgments around them. and after the wars of our Joshua begin, like Rahab are safe in the Lord, whom they own in the midst of the apostate nation. And I also see in the progress of this action the occasional joy of the family in heaven. (See chaps. 5, 7, 11, 14, 15, 19) Heaven is surely a place of continuous joy. There the saints hunger no more,* neither thirst any more, the Lamb feeds and refreshes them for ever. But still they may be sensible of seasons and occasions of rapture, and this appears to be intimated to us in these passages. The joys of the heavenly family and their songs are every now and then awakened afresh, when some new display of grace, or some new prospect of glory opens before them. Just as with the heavenly hosts before. for when the foundations were laid, they sang together anew, and still louder than before shouted for joy.

8. This (Rev. 7: 14-17) would seem rather to be an earthly scene and company. — Ed.

And here I may further observe that in the progress of this book, the Church appears to have taught the angels a still higher joy. In the Epistle to the Ephesians we learned that the Church was teaching the heavenly powers a lesson of God's wisdom (Eph. 3:  10); but here we see the angels practicing, as it were, the lessons they had previously learned. The Church leads the joy, and then the angels take it up, following the living creatures and crowned elders in their praise. (Rev. 5) And again, when the redeemed celebrate "salvation," in Rev. 7, they, as having learned the lesson, say "Amen."

Thus much I would observe on the action of these chapters; but particularly of their contents I could not speak with any certainty of judgment.* But all ends in the kingdom. as I have noticed. The binding of Satan in the bottomless pit, connected with the overthrow of the beast and the false prophet, may be called the morning judgment (the judgment of the quick), ushering in, as it Will, the millennial day, or the kingdom. Then at the close of that day, Satan being let loose from the pit to raise the last mischief in the world, the great white throne is erected, before which proceeds the evening judgment (the judgment of the dead), closing, as it will, the millennial day, or the kingdom. And the day of the Lord being then over, the kingdom will be delivered up, and the new heavens and the new earth will appear, the Church exchanging the kingdom for God all in all, or their millennial for their eternal joy, and Satan the bottomless pit for the lake of fire, or his millennial for his eternal doom.†

*This was written in 1846. — Ed.

†As another has observed: "The inheritor and the inheritance will then both have risen in character. The Second man, or the glorified body, will exceed the first man, or the earthly body, and so the new heavens and the new earth, will exceed in glory and joy the Paradise of creation."

Of all this the prophet has given a passing sight, and then he is called up to another vision. He had before seen the Bride prepared in heaven (Rev. 19), and now he is called to see her descent out of heaven (Rev. 21: 2-8), and by and by he will be called, in order to see herself as descended. (Rev. 21: 9) But now while descending, and he so looking at her, a voice accompanies the descent saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." And after this voice passed. He that sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And when He had thus spoken He addresses John, verifying all that John had heard, and giving him to know that when this came to pass, all would be done, adding, moreover, such warnings and encouragements as may be listened to by all from that moment to the end, being delivered by the Lord in the consciousness of the solemn sanction which the end imparts to all things, as indeed it is written: "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!" (Deut. 32: 29) Thus this vision of the descending city, and this audience of the voices from heaven, and from the throne pass away, and our prophet is carried to a great and high mountain that he might see this city herself, the Bride, the Lamb's wife. (Rev. 21: 9; Rev. 22: 6)

One of those angels who had before carried the seven last plagues is John's conductor now, and in his presence he measures the city, and, that being the sign of security (Rev. 11: 1, 2), he thereby gives us a pledge that there is no agency of destruction against it, but that the very hand which may plague the earth will shelter the Church. The Church as the candlestick may be shattered, but as the Lamb's wife she shall live. This golden city is this Bride of the Lamb — the Church of God now manifested in her perfectness. She has length and breadth and height equal, with twelve foundations, and twelve gates, her wall great and high, and her street of pure gold. Various all this, but all shining and costly, expressing her to be the one that is perfect in holy beauty. And she is not only thus perfect in herself, but she has her dignities as well as her beauties; she is the habitation of the glory of God, the place of the throne, a sanctuary too, as well as a palace, having a presence within her which makes the whole scene a temple. Thus is she the suited dwelling place of kings and priests; and being thus in herself the beautiful one, and bearing with her this honour of the royal priesthood, all that goes forth from her, or enters her, and dwells there, is according to those things. Light is shed from her that the nations may walk therein. Water from the river of life flows from her, bearing leaves with it, that the nations may be healed thereby; and all that goes in is purity, and all who dwell within are in joy and dignity, having no need of candles, or even of light from the sun, and being in the conscious dignity of their everlasting kingdom. Such is the city of our God. Nothing must touch such a habitation of holiness and gladness and glory, but the very honour of the kings of the earth. They may bring up their glory and honour into it, but nothing less than that can approach it. All is thus pure and shining within and around her, and she yields forth streams of light and life that all may be gladdened and bless her. This is the manifestation of the Church. In this present dispensation the Church is but forming like Eve for Adam; but when the time of the kingdom comes, and Adam awakes, then will His Eve be presented to Him, the associate of His joy and kingdom; the saints will be shown all fitly framed together, the Church presented to Himself, a glorious Church, without spot as here, in the place of blessing and government.

Surely all this is beautiful, as is everything of our God in its season. The incarnation and ministry of the Lord had been the manifestation of the Father and the Son; the present age is the manifestation of the Holy Ghost; and the age to come, and into which this vision of the golden city introduces us, will be the manifestation of the Church. For all is perfection in the way of God's wisdom, as in the ways of His love. He tells out to us one secret after another, bringing each in due season out of His treasures. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" But this only as we pass on, beloved; but by and by He Himself will detain us for ever.

I was tracing the character of that holy city which has now been disclosed to us, and observing that everything in it told us that it was the symbol of the Church in her perfectness and manifestation in glory, or the saints in their dominion and honour and I would again, as connected with this, recur to the difference between the Gospel and the Revelation by St. John. The Gospel closes by taking the children to the Father's house, or hiding them in heaven; the Revelation, by leading them down from heaven into the place of dominion over the earth, or manifesting them as the Church of God in the golden city. It is not the mansions in the Father's house which we have at the end of the Revelation to look into, but the place of the sanctuary, and the palace, the residence of the kings and priests unto God. It is not the children in their home, but the saints in their glory whom we see. And all this is in full character, for the Gospel by St. John had been throughout training the children for the Father, but this Revelation by him had been getting the inheritance and glory ready for the saints. It is a further stage in the history of the heavenly family. It is not that they have left the joy of the mansions for the father's house, which the Lord is now gone to prepare for them (John 14: 2), but they are to receive the glory of the inheritance in addition, and that is what is here presented to us. And this day of the descent of the golden city is the promised day of power, the day of the shutting up of the influence of hell upon earth by the binding of Satan in the pit, and for the opening the influence of heaven upon earth by this descent of the city of God; the setting up of that mystic ladder on which the angels of God are to pass from heaven to earth, and back to heaven again.

And the throne of God seen in this city has a new attribute. At the beginning it was the throne of God, and the Lamb only came up to it to take the sealed book from the hand of Him who sat there. But now the Lamb has ascended it. It is now "the throne of God and the Lamb." He has got up to the hill of the Lord, and is now standing in His holy place. For the whole action of the book has been preparing the throne for the lamb, as it had been preparing the golden city for the saints.

Such are the results disclosed now, and thus the action, as I judge, interprets the result, and the result confirms the character of the action. All is harmony in this wondrous book. The action was not that of the Son on high preparing the mansions in heaven for the children, nor the Holy Ghost here preparing the children for the mansions; but it was the Lord (or God in the supreme place for Him) coming forth in the power of one judgment after another to make His enemies His footstool, and then erect His kingdom and lead His saints into it. I have observed in all its holy order and righteous authority, it is the Church as a golden city we get, the symbol of righteousness and power united. The Church with the enthroned Lamb descending out of heaven to take association with the earth, and ruling and yet blessing it, presiding over it in righteousness, and yet dispensing to it the water of life, and the light of the glory, of the very fountains of which she had now become the scene and dwelling place.

Such is the end of the second part of this book of judgment. Through the terrible troubles of seals, trumpets, and vials, we have been led to the blessing of the earth, under the life and light that were in the golden city, where the throne of God and the Lamb is. And as we had a preface to the book in its place, so now we have a conclusion. (Rev. 22: 6-21)

Here we first listen to the angel who had attended St. John, attesting the full truth of all that had passed, and then we listen to the Lord pledging His speedy coming, and blessing (as in the preface) on those who should righteously use the book. We then find that the hearing and seeing of these excellent things so wrought for a moment on the mind of St. John, that he falls down and worships the angel, as indeed he had done before. (Rev. 19: 10) But on both these occasions he had been receiving some overwhelming visions. In chapter 19 he had just seen the marriage of the Lamb in heaven; and now the golden city in her glory and beauty; and his engaged and overpowered affections, awakened by such visions, must account to us for these worshippings of the angel. But the angle rebukes him, as Peter did Cornelius in such a case, and then instructs him in one particular touching this book, which is strikingly different from the instructions given to the Jewish prophet on a like occasion. (Dan. 8: 26; Dan. 12: 4-9) Daniel had seen and heard wonders, but was told to seal them till the time of the end, because the vision was yet to be for many days; but here our prophet is told to publish these things which he had seen and heard, because the time did not now wait, but was at hand.

This marks the mind of the spirit so differently in the Jewish prophet, and the prophet who was standing in our dispensation addressing the saints in St. John. For though events might have to pass in the thoughts of Israel before the kingdom could come, the Church may look for her Lord at all times, and accordingly the Lord at once again breaks in here with an announcement of His speedy coming, and that, too, with the rewards of righteousness, and revealing Himself again, as He had done in the beginning, in his supreme place as the Alpha and Omega.

After this the attending angel returns to his own proper theme, promising a blessing in righteousness on those who obey, and setting aside all the workers of evil; for this is the theme of the book — a book which does not say, "Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered," but pronounces blessing on the righteous, and doom on all evil doers. For it is not a book of ministering grace, but of exceeding righteousness; it is not sympathies or consolations that we find in it, but judgments. It is the place of Ezekiel which the Lord fills here, as it was that of Jeremiah which he had before occupied in the Gospel. In the Gospel, or in His ministry through the cities and villages of the land, He was the sorrowing, sympathizing Prophet, so that some said, "It is Jeremias"; but here he stands the Son of man, like Ezekiel in the place of judgment, in spirit saying, "He that hearth let him hear, and he that forbeareth let him forbear." "He that is filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is holy let him be holy still." There was no tear in the eye of Ezekiel, though rivers of water ran down the cheeks of Jeremiah.

All is so perfect in its time. The Lord knew the sympathies of the one as He walked in the land, and saw the moral ruins of Zion; and He can now know the righteousness of the other, as He stands above all that defiled ruin, and apart from it all in judgment.

But still, after all this, Jesus Himself again comes forward, and having set His seal to these revelations and words of the angel, He shows Himself to His saints. He glances at them in all the majesty of the root and offspring of David, and in the beauty of the morning star, and the moment He thus looks out upon them all the desire of the Church is awakened, and, led by the Spirit (whose office is always to point to Jesus), she is moved to invite Him to come; but once thus, with her desire set in motion, she sweetly goes out in grace towards others, as in desire towards Him. and after inviting Him, the bright and Morning Star, to come, she invites others who would "hear" to join her in this, and then those who were "athirst." having some affection towards her Lord just stirred, to come up to the full measure of her desire, and lastly, though the largeness of her heart, whosoever would, in whatsoever mind or state they may be, to come and drink of the living waters with her. Thus was her soul divinely moved upwards and around her. But this was an interruption of the more orderly progress of the book (like Rev. 1: 5, 6) on Jesus being revealed. But we should be prepared for such interruptions; we should not expect that the Lord could be revealed without the Church being moved, as in these places. Praise must full her if His grace be revealed, as there (Rev. 1: 6); desire must move her, if His person or glory be revealed, as here (Rev. 22); and we should all, beloved, be cultivating that longing of heart after Him that will lead us to take a ready part in such raptures of the Spirit in the Bride as these.

But this was interruption, and therefore when it passes, the Lord resumes the more proper theme of the book, and threatens plagues to him who unrighteously adds to it, and loss of life* and glory to him who unrighteously takes from it. This, however must not be allowed to close all. "Surely I come quickly" is heard again, words which had now broken forth from the Lord three times during this conclusion, for his heart was fuller of that than any other thought, and He would fill ours with it also. All was either to yield to that, or issue in it. Judgment must be executed, but judgment is His strange work. Affliction of the righteous must be gone through, but He never willingly afflicts. All is imperfect till Jesus appear; His own heart is upon this, and this is the last thought that he would leave upon ours. And the saint does respond. "Come, Lord Jesus," that the Lord may thus know that this is His people's desire and point of hope as it is His.

*This should more properly be rendered, "from the tree (not book) of life." — Ed.

Here Jesus the Lord and His ministering angel close their testimony. The apostle then in his turn takes his leave of the saints, saying. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." In the love of the Spirit he commends them to that which is their only provision in the way, till their journey is ended.

Till He comes, come when He may, bringing His glory with Him, they must stand in His grace; for the Lord gives both, and grace leads to glory.

The wilderness is now proving that He has riches and stores of the one for us, and Canaan will by and by prove that He has riches and stores of the other for all who love Him in this thankless and evil world.

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth.

2 Timothy 2: 15.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

The Second Epistle to Timothy is not only specially important to us in this day of corrupted Christianity, but it has its own peculiar force and attraction in the general moral character of it. It shows the apostle Paul to us in a very affecting light — holding on in service, though in the midst of hardships, desertion, and disappointment, under scorn and all contradiction from without, and amid the ruin, likewise, of the Church-condition.

At the opening of it, the apostle is very personal and affectionate — a style which was natural in one who found himself in the midst of sore disappointments; for if, at such a time, there was one, a single friend, who did not join in aggravating this disappointment, such an one would naturally, nay, necessarily, have a large measure of the remembrances of the poor tried and broken heart. And such an one, I believe, Timothy was to Paul, at the time of this epistle.

But looking at this in another light, I might say, what a victory, in the heart of the apostle, all this expresses! "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" — a common, natural experience. The heart has been disappointed in the scene around it, and from which it had promised itself much, and in other days had gathered something, and its tendency would be to shut itself up. But so was it not with Paul. His heart was as large, and earnest, and loving as ever; and if it cannot go forth and spread itself over a wider surface, it will return and spend its fervours over a little that remains to it.

This is an affecting sight we get of the apostle. And if Paul, in spirit, had gained such a victory as this in his own heart, he would have Timothy, "his dearly beloved son," gain another.

In days of corruption there is a temptation to throw up all as lost, to look on all as hopeless. It was thus in Jeremiah's day: and the day contemplated in 2 Timothy is like Jeremiah's, a day of moral relaxation and general corruption, in the very place where truth and righteousness should have flourished. But Paul cannot let Timothy yield to this temptation. He calls on him to stir up the gift of God that was in him. However hopeless the scene of labour might be, still there was a gift of God in Timothy, and that gift was to be used.

Jeremiah had to struggle in the strength and title of such a gift, in the midst of such another scene of corruption and disappointment. And he did struggle — it may be with some infirmity, but still honestly and successfully to the end. — And Paul would have his Timothy do likewise.

He arms him, however, for this struggle. He exhorts him to be "strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus." And he reads out to him his title to be thus strong. He tells him that he had not received from God a spirit of fear, but of love, and of power; that God had already saved him; that by the appearing of Jesus death had been abolished, and life and immortality brought to light; and that the One whom he believed was able to keep all that was committed to Him, so that nothing should be lost, but all should be found in the forthcoming day of His power and glory. (2 Tim. 1)

Here was title, indeed, to be "strong in the grace" of God. Timothy, like David (though in a day like the day of the capture of Ziklag), might well "encourage himself in God." (See 1 Sam. 30)

But with this exhortation to be strong in grace, the apostle further exhorts him "to endure hardness," and he intimates that this exhortation was the more needful, because some were teaching that the resurrection was past already." (2 Tim. 2)

Such a doctrine overthrows faith, as the apostle here says. It is, destructive of the Church's place and calling; for she is not as yet the witness of a risen but of a rejected Christ, as far as her connection with the earth or the world goes; Christ, who is her head, being still a rejected Christ here. She knows Him in His poverty and humiliation. And this calls on His witnesses to endure hardness, to fight as those who entangle not themselves with the affairs of this life, to labour as those who are not to reap till they have laboured; to remember "the seed of David" who died ere He rose, all which things the apostle here speaks of to Timothy. The word of Hymeneus and Philetus was destructive, morally destructive of all this. They taught that "the resurrection was past already." They encouraged the thought that the fellowship of the Church is now no longer to be with a rejected Head; and this thought has so worked (finding natural alliance with the heart of man), that the "great house," as Paul here speaks, has been generated. Christendom (the mustard seed become a great tree) has sprung from this root, in this soil. The corrupted church has assumed the world, as though the kingdom had come.

According to all this, Timothy is here told of a house that he has to leave,* and not (as the first epistle had told him) of a house in the midst of which he was to "behave" himself. That is, this epistle contemplates a time of victorious corruption, such as Christendom now is. We are, therefore, to purge ourselves from it and not strive to purge it. It is too late to attempt it. We cannot purge out leaven in a day of victorious corruption. It waits the judgment of God.

*See the "Brief Remarks" on this part of the Paper, on page 89.

Now, it is in the midst of all this that the apostle thus addresses Timothy, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." A most necessary word, for Hymeneus and Philetus were at that very time doing the very contrary. They, as the apostle says of them, "concerning the truth had erred." They said, in a general way, "the resurrection is past already." As a universal proposition, a doctrine to be taken in all its applicability, it is false, in special application most true. But these men who were overthrowing the faith of some, did not heed this right division of the truth. But truth itself depended on this right division of it. We are, in the perfect grace of God, to know the resurrection as past, when we think of sin and judgment. We are to know it in our conscience. We are to be free there, to have "the answer of a good conscience towards God," because of "the resurrection of Jesus Christ." We are to know Him as delivered for our sins, and raised again for our justification.

So, as to our affections, as well as to our conscience, we are to be risen or heavenly, because Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We are surely to have our objects and our hopes with Him that is risen.

As, however, to our circumstances, or in our relation to the world, we are to be the witnesses of a rejected, and not of a risen, glorified Christ. In the world Jesus has, as yet, no place. It has cast Him out, and He has disowned it.

But this division of the word of truth Hymeneus and Philetus would not know. They taught, as a truth of universal present application, that the resurrection was already past. And what a canker has their word proved to be! It has generated "the great house." Christendom, where a worldly and not a rejected Christ is seen, derives itself out of this error. It makes the little seed (the smallest of all herbs) a great tree, like the king of Babylon of old, where the fowls of the air lodge. It has given us Babylon instead of Jerusalem. It has given us Babylon, where we should have had Jerusalem. It has built Babylon in the land of Israel.

_____________

BRIEF REMARKS ON THE PRECEDING PAPER.*

*These remarks were originally addressed to the Editor of The Bible Treasury, in which magazine the Paper was first published, and are now quoted here as necessary to a proper rendering of the subject.

"ALLOW me to make a remark on 'Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth,' the first article in your number for May. In the general principles and spirit of the article I cordially agree, and judge it to be most timely. But the path of wisdom is a narrow one — one which the vulture's eye has not seen. And there is a point in the paper in which the word does not seem to me to be rightly divided, or rather, that is attributed to the passage (2 Tim. 2: 15) which is not in it.

"It involves, I am satisfied, very important consequences in spiritual judgment, or I should not perhaps have noticed it. I am not aware that I differ from the writer in general practical result. It is a point which has been a good while on my mind; and while hesitating whether it was God's will that I should formally notice it, the article of which I speak gives, by its statement, direct occasion to do so. The point I refer to is in the following passage: — 'According to all this Timothy is here told of a house that he has to leave,* and not (as the first epistle had told him) of a house in the midst of which he was to "behave" himself.' I find no direction whatever in the passage to leave the house — no trace of such a thought, but other directions given which exclude the thought. And this is evident in the change of language which the article introduces into the scriptural phrase, 'We are, therefore, to purge ourselves from it, and not strive to purge it.' Now the passage does not tell us either to purge it or to purge ourselves from it. I admit that the thought of purging it is wholly foreign to the passage. No such thought is presented to the believer to guide his conduct. But he is not told to purge himself from it, but to purge himself from the 'vessels to dishonour.' 'If a man shall purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel made to honour, fit for the master's use.' A vessel where? The master of what? 'The foundation of God standeth sure. The Lord knoweth them that are his.' No matter what the confusion and evil, there is divine security; 'and let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.' There is the unchangeable character of human responsibility, whatever state the nominal or real church may be in. But there is no direction to depart from the house. It is not said that we are to purge ourselves from it, but from the vessels to dishonour, which are not it. If Christ be the master of the house — whatever vessels are in it — how can we? Whatever consequences may be drawn, the first and essential point is to hold fast the word itself. I am satisfied the point is not an unimportant one, and that the truth gives more true separation and departure from iniquity than any misapprehension of the word of God can, however upright in purpose it may be.

"Faithfully yours, "OUTIZ."

*The italics are the author's.

Thoughts on Romans 6 - 8

Thoughts on Romans 6 - 8.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 9 p. 267.

In Romans 6. I understand the apostle to be reasoning with the believer upon the claims which sin has on him. And the apostle tells us that sin has been disposed of. Sin was once the master or king; holding dominion, it issued its commands through all the members which were thus "instruments of unrighteousness unto sin." But sin has now, as such master, paid his wages. Its wages was death; and we have died in or with Christ, and thus sin is disposed of, or we have done with it; for Christ had done with it when He died. "He died unto sin." It is true He had to do with sin in His death which owned the dominion of sin, that being the wages paid. But in resurrection Christ had to do with God and not with sin. He rose by the glory of the Father, and by resurrection lived unto God as in His death, He had died unto sin so that the believer, now associated with Christ in His death and resurrection, has done with sin and has to do with God. Sin in its wages is disposed of and so should it be in all its claims; for if we no longer receive its claims, so no longer are we to do its service.

It is as those who are alive from the dead that we should walk, and if that condition be rightly apprehended (alive from the dead, or risen) continuance in the doing or service of sin will be found a thing not to be at all even counted upon.

Such indeed have rather to reckon themselves "dead unto sin" and alive unto God through Jesus Christ.

Such truths their baptism reads to them. If indeed sin be willingly served, we own that sin is still alive and not thus disposed of, and we deny the whole of this truth and our standing in Christ; for when we died to sin, that is when sin paid us its wages (in Christ put to death), then the "old man or the body of sin was destroyed;" that is, all our members and faculties, once the sphere and instruments of sin's dominion and service, in that character were put to death also, so that all our members and faculties now should own and assert and exercise themselves in a risen character.

I judge that sin itself must be distinguished here from both the "old man" and "the body of sin." These rather signify the scene of the dominion of sin or the strength or instruments by which, and in which, he ruled and exercised himself.

In Romans 7 the apostle entertains the claims of the law upon the believer, and shows that they also have been disposed of. He does this very simply; he says that the authority of the law addresses itself only to a living man, that is, a man in the flesh. It is the flesh or man as born of Adam, that the law was given to; but the believer has ceased in this sense to be a living man, has ceased to be of Adam, inasmuch as he has died and risen again; and consequently being a dead and risen man, and not a living man, the law does not address its claims to him, he is not the object for the law.

But in this the law is not spoken of in the same relation to us as sin had been. Sin had been spoken of as a master or being; but the law is here spoken of as a husband. And the result of our being dead to sin is life to God, but the result of our being now dead to the law is here shown to be marriage with Christ. These distinctions you will find have their beautiful moral force and meaning. Then in the close of this chapter (having thus shown how that sin and the law have been disposed of or set aside, the one as a master, the other as a husband) the apostle tells us at the same time that they have been discharged with very different characters: sin, with as bad, the law with as good, a character as even the inspired pen of an apostle could write for them. All evil in us is declared to have come from the one, while from the other nothing flowed but that which was holy, just, and good. And the moment that the real character of the law was understood by the quickened soul, this grievous state of things arose — "the commandment came, sin revived and I died" — the law was felt to urge one thing upon the conscience — sin was felt to exact another thing in the old man or the members; and this state of things drew forth the sense of death in the soul and the cry for deliverance, and the answer comes in Jesus revealed in the power of His death and resurrection.

The law being good has not been discharged in the way that sin has. It has been discharged as a husband only (as that to which the soul was debtor and with which it was in union), because we are no longer living, but dead and risen, men. Its holy and good words as expressive of God are still delighted in and allowed.

In Romans 8 we get the believer thus escaped from sin as a master, and the law as a husband, in his new place in Christ. Being in Him the believer has become a spiritual person, no longer in the flesh, and thus the flesh is discharged as well as sin and the law; that is, we are neither under the old master with the old husband, nor in the old nature; and by the way the apostle shows that the flesh, thus discharged, could never (let God do with it what He might) have yielded any fruit or allegiance to Him, so that, as we speak, it was "bad rubbish" in itself, and to be free of it is "good riddance."

Having thus cleared the way to look at the believer in his new place in Christ, the apostle then with delight traces the holy prerogatives of such an one.

1. He is nothing less than a son, having the Spirit of adoption, not the spirit of bondage as a servant.

2. Being thus a son, the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, is in him as at home.

3. Being thus a son, he is also an heir, having co-heirship of God with Christ Jesus.

4. And as the great principle of this co-heirship, he is to shine in the same personal glory by-and-by as Jesus, on the hope of the manifestation of which glory in us the whole creation now waits. And though all this condition of the believer may cause him to groan under the sense of his present state in the body, and that he is only still in hope, like the whole creation. Yet the Spirit given to him and being in him, groans also, and groans with so pure a groan that God has entire fellowship with it. And even more than this: God, in His sovereign rule of all things, constrains them all to work together for the believer's good, that without as well as within us He may be for us.

And, finally, the one great original purpose of conforming the believer to the model or pattern of the glorified Son is that which has been the spring, and is the everlasting and abiding spring, of all the divine procedure and action.

This is the train of glorious privileges which flow forth from the believer's union with Christ. Nothing is too excellent for God to do or to devise for such an one; all the joy that the fullest love can inspire, all the dignity that the highest glories can put on us, are ours thus according to the counsel of God in Christ Jesus. God is for us — that can easily account for all this train of joys and glories.

But if He is for us, who can be against us? Who can do anything to harm us? Is there an accuser, a judge, or an executioner, still standing out? The first may go away rebuked by this that God has justified us; the second may go away rebuked by this that Christ has died — has already suffered the judgment, and His work has been accepted to the full in heaven itself; the third may go away rebuked by this: that all the malice of earth and hell together shall never drag us away from the embraces, the firm embraces, of our God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And if there be now neither accuser to charge, nor judge to condemn, nor executioner to punish, the court is cleared. We have left the scene, to which as sinners we had been righteously dragged, to meet Him who has delivered us, in other scenes altogether; not as the Judge but as the Bridegroom, to enjoy a Husband in a Saviour for ever and ever. J. G. B.

Ruth

Ruth.

J. G. Bellett.

Section 10 of: Musings on Scripture, Volume 3

"If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold" (Lev. 25: 25).

Redemption, as one has said, was no afterthought with our God; it was His purpose from the beginning. By the work of redemption He prepares the richest glory for His own blessed name, and the fullest joy for His creatures. "The morning stars sang together," it is true, "and all the sons of God shouted for joy," when the foundations of the earth were laid; but the shoutings of grace, when the new creation is finished by the bringing forth of the head stone, will be louder still. Never were such music and dancing in the house before as when the poor prodigal had returned, and been received as one alive from the dead. Never had such affections been awakened within him before. Never had the father's treasures been brought forth till then: till then the fatted calf, the ring, and the best robe had been laid up; and never had the father himself so full a joy in his child as when he fell on his neck and kissed him. And so is it in the wondrous ways of our God. Creation brought forth the resources of His love, and wisdom, and power, and heaven on high was glad through all its order, and earth smiled beneath the fair witness of His handiwork; but redemption has drawn forth still richer treasures that were lying hid in God — has awakened still more adoring joy and praise "in the presence of the angels," and has given new and diviner affections to the children of men,

And nothing now hinders us from sharing in these joys of the Father's house, but refusal to take the character and place of returned prodigals. "Thou never gavest me a kid," said one who trusted in himself. He had never tasted of real gladness: no feast of fat things had ever been spread for him, for he drew upon himself as though he were something. For "these many years do I serve thee," said he in his own sufficiency, "neither transgressed I at any time thy commandments." He was of those who "trusted in themselves." And then, and then only, is our joy hindered, when in this pride and vain conceit of our sufficiency, we come not to God as received prodigals. For to come as such is the decreed way of the whole family of God, and so their only spring of joy and triumph; as it is written, "and every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."

Every thing is to stand in grace. Love was of old, because God is love, and love was therefore made known in the work of creation, and that by communicating goodness and blessing. But love has found a fuller scope for expressing itself in the work of redemption, in bringing grace and showing mercy; and this is its new character (see 1 John 2: 8). Grace, the source and power of redemption, is "the glory that excelleth;" — the light that shined from heaven in converting grace and power round Saul of Tarsus, was "above the brightness of the sun at mid-day." Grace is the fullest, and indeed the only worthy expression of the unsearchable riches of divine love. The heavens will rejoice in grace (Rev. 5: 11, 12); and Israel, as representing the joy of the earth, will, in the end, triumph in it also (Isa. 40: 50; Isa. 61: 10. Zeph. 3: 14, 15).

Among the witnesses to this final security and joy of Israel, in the grace of God their Redeemer, the book of Ruth appears to me to have a very distinguished place, presenting, as it does, an illustration of the duties of the Goel or Kinsman-Redeemer,* and thus, as we shall find, furnishing the type of Israel in their sorrows and captivities down to the time when the Lord their Redeemer will, through the riches of His grace, delight in them again, and their land shall be married.

* See Lev. 25: 25; Numbers 35: 19; Deut. 25: 5.

But in order the better to apprehend this typical character of the book of Ruth, we must use a little diligence in tracing the ways of God with Israel previously to the times of Ruth, and the distinct character of some of the books which introduce us to it.

Deuteronomy exhibits to us the perfecting of the covenant between Jehovah and Israel. After Moses had rehearsed their ways, delivered to them ordinances and commandments again, and warned and encouraged them, he stands before the people of Israel and says (Deut. 26: 16-19), "This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments, thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in His ways and to keep His statutes, and His commandments and His judgments, and to hearken unto His voice; and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be His peculiar people as He has promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all His commandments, and to make thee high above all nations which He hath made, in praise and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as He hath spoken." This was a formal binding of the Lord and the people in covenant together, and thus the compact is solemnly and duly witnessed by the book of Deuteronomy.

The book of Joshua which follows, shows the wonders of Jehovah's outstretched arm in the sight of the nations, and in the behalf of His people, His leading them in triumph from city to city, and subduing kings before them, till Joshua their captain had taken the whole land according to all that the Lord had said unto Moses. For thus is it written, (Joshua 11: 23). "So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes, and the land rested from war:" — and again, (Joshua 21: 45), "There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the, house of Israel — all came to pass:" — and again, Joshua when about to go the way of all the earth could stand before Israel and say, "Ye know in all your hearts, and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, not one thing hath failed thereof" (Joshua 23: 14). And thus the book of Joshua abundantly asserts the truth of the Lord and His covenant faithfulness.

The book of Judges follows; and as the preceding book had been the witness for the Lord, that He had fulfilled all His covenant with Israel, so does this book witness against Israel, that they had utterly broken their covenant with the Lord. It is true, that Israel, served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord that He had done for Israel. But the generation were gathered to their fathers; and as we read that "there arose a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph," but became unmindful of all the kindness which the Lord had shown for His nation by Joseph, and was turned to be the adversary of Joseph's brethren, so we see another generation now risen in Israel, who with uncircumcised Egyptian heart knew not the Lord Who had visited and redeemed their fathers.

Throughout these times of the Judges we see their repeated backslidings, and the Lord again and again correcting them by judgments, and turning in mercy to forgive their iniquities, and heal their diseases. Often as a hen gathereth her chickens, would He have gathered His erring people; but the closing testimony of this book against them, is — "every man did that which was right in His own eyes" (Judges 21: 25).

Thus we have in Deuteronomy, the covenant solemnity settled and entered into — in Joshua the Lord's accomplishment of all His mercies engaged to Israel under that covenant, — and in Judges, Israel's utter breach of all their vowed and pledged allegiance. This was the righteous forfeiture of all their blessing. So that the time had now come when the Lord must decide either to lay hold on judgment, or to bring mercy. He now might swear in His wrath that Israel should never enter His rest — they had been assayed, and were found "reprobate silver." "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself," might now be the lamentation over them; but the Lord was about to reply, "but in Me is thine help," for Jehovah is God and not man. He Who in righteousness might now have eased Him of His adversaries, and avenged Him of His enemies, prepares mercies for them, allows mercy to rejoice against judgment, and says, as at this time, "How shall I deliver thee up Ephraim, how shall I deliver thee Israel, how shall I make thee has Admah, how shall I set thee as Zeboim?" And therefore in the history of Ruth, the Moabitess, which immediately follows the book of Judges, He gives them a sample not of final severity for their sins, but of the grace by which they shall be gathered, and the glory into which they shall be brought in the latter day.

The constant respect that is had in scripture to the histories of the people of God in olden times, for the illustration of His further and still future ways, either in such an artless and passing manner as may at first be unperceived, or in the more full and distinct interpretation of them as types or allegories, gives us great authority for considering the book of God generally as being of a prophetic character. The scenes in Paradise, Cain, Abel, the Deluge, and the ruins of Sodom, the times of the Patriarchs, the Exodus, Joshua, David and Solomon, the sufferings and the acts of the Prophets — these with others are all taken up and treated as typical; and how distinctly does the Spirit give this character to the scripture histories in Ps. 78 where, after announcing that He is about to open His mouth "in a parable," and to "utter dark sayings," He details simply the ways of Israel's rebellions and perverseness, and Jehovah's judgments and mercies; thus giving us to know that all this history was a parable also, in like manner when in 1 Cor. 10, the apostle had traced the manners of Israel in the wilderness, and the consequent judgments of the Lord, he says "now all these things happened unto them for ensamples." The history of Sarah and Hagar with their children is more distinctly announced to be an allegory; Cain, Balaam, and Korah are pointed out as the signs of Christendom's offences and judgment, and Babylon is revived in spirit, though the name and remnant, and son and nephew have been cut off from it, and it has itself been swept with the besom of destruction. And I doubt not that the history of Ruth, beautiful and attractive as it is, is designed of the Spirit to be something more than a help to discover the genealogy of the Lord (Matt. 1: 5), or than a pleasing moral and affecting scene in domestic life, but that we may also read in it, and vindicate by it, the ways of the Lord of Hosts with His loved and. still remembered Israel.

I know that the watching of the imagination, that we offend not by it, may be much needed here, but the comfort and edification of the saint in the unfoldings of the ways of God by means of such allegories will witness for them; and as it is again and again promised, "to him that hath, shall more be given," our delight in the holy oracles and godly use of them will enable us, like instructed scribes, to bring forth further treasures. May the Spirit of truth make us such!

The book of Ruth opens with a simple scene of domestic sorrow. The family of Elimelech of Bethlehem, in Judah, is forced by stress of famine to seek a livelihood in the country of Moab. Here he dies, and his two sons form alliances with the daughters of that strange people, and in process of time, none was left of this family, but the widowed, childless Naomi. "Woe is me for my hurt;" — in the words of the daughter of Zion, by the prophet, might she then say, "my wound is grievous; but I said, truly this is my grief and I must bear it: my tabernacle is spoiled and all my cords are broken, my children are gone forth of me and they are not, there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains."

Now here we have at once something to arrest our thoughts. Behold famine in that land which the Lord Jehovah had promised should flow with milk and honey for His chosen people! But this was the sure testimony that that chosen people had been unfaithful; and therefore all this evil estate (the sorrows of the land and the captivity of her children) exhibits Israel as they now are* suffering for their unfaithfulness under the righteous displeasure of the Lord. Their cities are wasted without inhabitant now, as then. partially in the days of Naomi, the land is utterly desolate, the Lord has removed her children far away, and there is a great forsaking in the midst of the land. Famine then was what dispersion is now; for the transgression of the people must account for both; one reason and one only can. be given for their sorrows in all periods; the voice in every calamity of Israel is the same, "My God will cast thee away, because they did not hearken unto Him."

*Elimelech, who was the father and head of this afflicted family, signifies "my God the King," and is properly and characteristically the title of Messiah in connection with the Jewish people. As the Elimelech, Israel is His household, and not the church; and now truly has this household of His become a wanderer in strange lands, no longer Naomi but Mara. But the church is not properly set in connection with Him in this character; and therefore, as for other reasons, I do not judge that the church is typified in this book.

The marriages of Mahlon and Chilion, sons of Israel, with the daughters of Moab, show us Israel's present utter loss of their sacred Nazarite character, that the "holy flesh has passed from them," that they are no longer sanctified and separated unto God, but are mingled with the nations, have learnt their works, and are become defiled as sinners of the Gentiles. And Naomi left of her two sons and her husband, exhibits their destitution, and loss of everything that could wear a trace of their former estate; for though reserved of God, as a people, to meet the purposes of His future mercy, yet their special character is, for the present, utterly lost and gone; they have become in God's judgment, as one of the nations, and "Lo-ammi" is written on them.

But the Lord, as we learn from this history, in due time returned in mercy to Israel; for His constant word to them is, that "He will not contend with them for ever." Though He make a full end of the nations, yet will He not make a full end of them. He visited and redeemed His people in giving them bread again; and the earliest tidings of this awakens all Naomi's recollections of Israel. As soon as she heard that the land might be dwelt in again, she arose and went forth out of the place where she was: and though naked and afflicted, and needing every thing, she traces her way back to Bethlehem-Judah.

What a mother in Israel is here! She would yield up her daughters-in-law, loving and faithful as they had been to her, and at once surrender all the alliances which she had formed among the Gentiles, and the sources of relief and comfort which had been opened for her there, and return as Mara, empty and afflicted, rather than be any longer a stranger to the land of her fathers! She appears before us a true Rachel, who now refuses, as we know, to be comforted, and will refuse till her "children shall come again to her own border" (Jer. 31: 1517), for such is the heart of the children of Israel. Gladly would they come forth from all the advantages and comforts which have been made theirs in the places where they have been scattered, and return, Mara like, to their own land. Let the tidings but reach them which reached Naomi at this time, — that the land is open to them, and the ways to Zion which now mourn, and all her gates which are desolate, shall rejoice, and speedily again be full of people.

And here the character of Ruth fully and at once develops itself. — She is fixed upon being one with Naomi, her mother-in-law. — She will forget kindred and father's house. — She is tempted on the one hand by the dreary prospects which Naomi presented, as awaiting her if she would still go forward, — and she is tempted on the other by Orpah's revolt, and return to the more profitable promises of Moab; but all this serves but to manifest and approve her — she stood in the evil day. Like Elisha, in such a case, whom neither the voice of his master on the one hand, nor the taunts of the sons of the prophets on the other, could move him to change that word, "As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee" (2 Kings 2: 4). "Entreat me not," says she to Naomi, "to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou guest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge, thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God." She would leave behind her all recollections of Moab and her people; — she would be one with Naomi, though in widowhood and destitution. No longer a daughter of Moab, she was steadily minded to be only of Israel, one with the people of the Lord. Thus is this sinner of the Gentiles found among the children of the kingdom; and from this moment Israel becomes represented in Ruth, who, as we shall find, takes up after Naomi the wondrous tale of God's ways with His people. Their fortunes now become typically set forth in her's, for the chosen Israel of God in the latter days will be as this sinner of the Gentiles; Israel shall then be accepted through the same riches of grace that now saves the church, the fulness of the Gentiles, as says the Apostle, speaking to the Gentiles, "For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy, for God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all" (Rom. 11).

It is on this principle I rest assured that the present call of the Gentiles has no place in the typical history of Ruth. She was, it is true, a Gentile, and this has led some to misinterpret the mystery. But Israel is now as the Gentiles, and as Gentiles will be finally accepted. For as we who were sinners of the Gentiles, and as such were "no people," but have now through grace become the people of God; so will Israel, who are now "no people," be made the people of God in the latter days. Israel shall hereafter be made the vessel of mercy for the making known of the riches of glory, as the church has now been made (see Hosea 1 - 3, Rom. 9: 23-26); and thus the Gentile birth of Ruth was needed to set her forth a fair and perfect type of Israel, who are treated now as strangers, but to be finally gathered with the same mercy as is now gathering us, who were strangers indeed. Blindness in part has now happened to them, but in the day of their covenant their sin shall be taken away.

This suggests (and I would here turn aside to speak of it a little,) the very striking, exhibition of the dealings of the Lord with Israel, which is made in the Prophet Hosea, and which is similar to that made in Ruth the Moabitess.

Hosea is presented to us as under orders to take a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms, and he does so. He takes Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and by her he has a son, whom he is commanded to call Jezreel; then a daughter, whom, as in like manner commanded, he calls Lo-ruhamah, and then another son, whom he names, still at the bidding of the Lord, Lo-ammi. The first of these children's names signifies the dispersion of. Israel; the second, mercy denied to Israel; the third, the Lord's rejection of Israel as His people.

In this action Hosea might say in the words of another Prophet, "Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel;" for in all this the apostasy and judgment of Israel are clearly set forth. The marriage of the Prophet with the wife of whoredoms is Jehovah's covenant with faithless Israel, yielding therefore, as its fruit, judgment, till the children of Israel were found, as they now are, reprobate silver, a "Lo-ammi," a people disclaimed of their God.

But this marriage of the Prophet, typical as it was of the sin and judgment of Israel, is grounded on a fact in their history to which he consequently alludes. Hosea prophesied, as we read, in the days of Jeroboam who was of the house of Jehu; and the circumstance that brought that family into the honour of the kingdom, that is, "the blood of Jezreel," is the sin which called forth the typical marriage of the Prophet, and is taken up by him as the pattern of Israel's transgression, and thus the ground of God's dealings with them. We will open the scene to which he thus makes allusion, and we shall find that, like Ruth, it illustrates the duty of the Goel. -

The times of Ahab were corrupt in the extreme. — There were none like him whom Jezebel his Queen stirred up to sell himself to work wickedness and to do very abominably in following idols. But in those times Naboth of Jezreel stood as the righteous one in the land. Though it were to please the King he would not depart from the law of the Lord and sell His inheritance. He knew that it was the decree of the God of Israel that inheritances were not to remove from tribe to tribe, but that every one in Israel should keep himself to the inheritance of his fathers (Num. 36: 9). But for his righteousness' sake he is called to suffer. Through the subtlety of Jezebel and by the hand of certain sons of Belial his blood is shed in Jezreel, (1 Kings 21: 13). and his inheritance, the inheritance of his fathers, is usurped by Ahab. For this deed the Lord, by His Prophet, denounces judgment on Ahab and his house; and, accordingly by stroke upon stroke he makes a full end of them, and the blood of Ahab and the blood of Joram his son, and the blood of Jezebel are shed in the portion of Jezreel. Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, is called forth to finish this judgment, to be the avenger of blood, and to cleanse the land that had been thus polluted with it (Num. 35: 33); and as his reward the throne of Israel is secured to his family for four generations (2 Kings 10: 30).

But Jehu in all this had himself in view; and while pretending zeal for the Lord, was really satisfying his own lust. As Ahab had coveted the vineyard of Naboth which was in Jezreel, hard by his palace, and for the sake of it had shed the blood of the righteous, so Jehu loved dominion, and for the sake of it, and not in the spirit of service to Jehovah, did he execute the judgment of God upon the house of Ahab. And therefore in his turn, like Ahab, he is made to answer for the blood of Jezreel: as says the Lord by Hosea, "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu." But the Prophet adds — "and I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel, and it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel" (Hosea 1: 4). Thus upon this sin — i.e. the blood shedding at Jezreel, the Prophet suspends the final judgment and excision of Israel; and justly so, for the sin of Israel, as I will now show, was as the sin of Ahab, or as the sin of Jehu.

Our blessed Lord was the righteous one in Israel in His day, as Naboth had been. He was properly the Heir of all the nation's greatness. He was the Son of David, and claimed to be received as such (Matt. 21). The vineyard, the inheritance was His; but the wicked husbandmen, though allowing His title, refused Him possession, and said, "this is the Heir come let us kill Him, and let us seize on His inheritance." And they did so; they desired that the vineyard might be their own, they loved their "place and nation" under the Romans, and in the spirit of Ahab and of Jehu they caught the Heir and cast Him out of the vineyard, and slew Him. His blood at this moment thus stains their land, it is upon them and upon their children, as the blood of Jezreel, the blood of Naboth the Jezreelite was upon the house of Ahab; and for this they are now in the character of the Prophet's children, scattered as "Jezreel," denied mercy as "Lo-ruhamah," and disowned of their Lord as "Lo-ammi." And as Jehovah said of Naboth's vineyard, "surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, and I will requite thee (Ahab) in this plot;" so are the wicked husbandmen still to answer, blood for blood, that the land may be cleansed (Num. 35: 33), and that that which is now the Aceldama may become the portion of the righteous again, the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts (Dan. 12: 1, Zech. 13: 8, Matt. 4: 1 [Matt. 24: 31?]).

Jehu acted in this as the avenger of blood, the kinsman of Israel, and was rewarded, as we have seen, with the kingdom for four generations. And so the true Kinsman and avenger of Israel the blessed and glorified Son of Man, shall fall on the rebellious and grind them to powder, and be brought near before the Ancient of days, and receive dominion and glory, and a kingdom to possess it for ever and ever.

But how we should be warned by this and remember Naboth's vineyard, as we are graciously taught to remember Lot's wife. It was "the stuff in the house," that was lusted after, and has made both of them, as it were, "pillars of salt," perpetual witnesses to us, that "they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." Jehu would be religious too, he would be zealous for the Lord, if that could serve himself. The interests of Baal and his worshippers were not one with his; he rather was served by the judgment of Jehovah upon them, and therefore he could break down the image of Baal, and make his house a draught house unto this day. But it was himself he was serving all the time; he took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord. O brethren! the friendship of the world is enmity with God — nor is it less so, though it may clothe itself with zeal for the Lord.

But in the prophet Hosea, as in the type of Ruth, (as we shall in the end see,) mercy is made to rejoice against judgment. The "woman beloved of her friend yet an adulteress," is received again after many days (Hosea 3). Jezreel the dispersed is gathered; Lo-ruhamah who had not obtained mercy, does obtain mercy; the Lo-ammi, who were no people, become again the people of God. For thus saith the Lord by His Prophet, "It shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God: then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel" (Hosea 1: 10, 11). Then shall Jezreel, the whole land and people, be the witness of grace as it is now of judgment; as the Lord saith, "I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion" (Joel 3: 21). The portion in Jezreel shall become the portion of the righteous again, the vineyard and inheritance of the Lord shall be given to a nation (in the latter days) bringing forth the fruits thereof. And so in the kindred type of our Ruth. She that was a sinner of the Gentiles, who came from among the Lo-ammi, is made, as we shall find, the wife of "the mighty man of wealth," and the mother of a new and honoured race in Israel, the fair and perfect pledge of Jehovah's everlasting love. And this typical character of Ruth is indeed afterwards distinctly acknowledged; for it is said to her, "The Lord make thee like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel;" which leaves us no liberty to doubt that we read a parable in her history, and that Israel is represented in her (Ruth 4: 2).

To resume the history, then, we may here notice that we have Naomi and Ruth in the land of promise, the place of all desired blessing, the appointed scene of glory and the land of the living. But they are there at first empty and afflicted, though the land is fruitful again, and the harvest is gathering. But so will the Lord's remnant be found, when the nation has returned. As says the Lord by His prophet, "I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord" (Zeph. 3: 12).

But Ruth and Naomi are not wholly unblest; they are at least at home, and though, in scanty measure living on the gleanings of another's field, and waiting for the crumbs that fall from another's table, yet kindness is shown to them of one who was "a mighty man of wealth" (Ruth 2: 8-13). — And so will the kindness of a mightier and more generous One than Boaz be seen, when tending again "the poor of the flock, the flock of slaughter," and when bread shall be given them and waters shall be sure (Isa. 33: 16). And so will the poor of the flock trust in Him, and wait upon His hand as their Shepherd in, the cloudy and dark day; so will they enter into the pavilion of His presence and hide themselves while that day passes by; and, remembering the days of their fathers, they will humble themselves, like Ruth, as less than the handmaids of the Lord,

But Ruth ere long was destined to look on this "mighty man of wealth," as her kinsman and husband sharing with her, gladly sharing with her, the treasures of those fields, where now she gleaned a scanty living; as will His poor and afflicted* remnant that shall trust in Him for bread and water, soon see their Kinsman, "the King in His beauty," and their Zion "a quiet habitation never to be removed."

*We speak here of the elect people in the last days under the title of "the remnant," for so the scriptures speak; inasmuch as the true Israel, or the Israel of God, has at all times been but as a remnant in the midst of the reprobate nation (as now and at all times with the church, the saints are as the elect in the midst of corrupt Christendom). And so will the true Israel be but a remnant when Israel becomes a nation again, resettled in the land of their fathers (see Isa. 6: 13, Isa. 65: 8; Rom. 9: 27-29; Rom. 11: 26). And this last remnant will become the seed of the future nation, the "all Israel," which is to be saved (Rom. 11: 26). As it is written, "A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation." And till then, while the troubles continue, they will suffer, as alone faithful and righteous in the midst of evil; they will then cry to the Lord (as the Psalms largely, I believe, present to us), and then will the Lord in due season appear for them; and when His indignation on the enemy begins, His remnant shall be preserved (Isa. 26: 20, 21), Blessed be He who ever heareth the cry of the poor destitute.

Israel of old had been taught to love the stranger as one born among them, for they had themselves known the heart of a stranger. And in the mercifulness of Him Whose they were, and Who feedeth the young ravens that cry unto Him, and openeth His hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness, they had been thus commanded, "When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest; thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger" (Lev. 19: 9, 10).

As a true son of Israel, Boaz, the Bethlehemite, remembers this word of the God of  Israel, and does even more than was commanded. This poor stranger from Moab, as we read in the story, is well reported of to him by the reapers. He salutes her with kind and condescending favour, and she accepts his grace with thankfulness, satisfied with what her toil could gather, while he exceeds all her desire, serving her, with his own hands, and giving her a place among his sheaves. Sweet expression of the Lord's ways with His waiting poor ones now, and of His feeding His remnant in the land hereafter! And we here observe how the kindness of this "mighty man of wealth," encourages the faith of those afflicted daughters of Israel. Ruth repeats the story of his kindness to her mother-in-law; and then the recollection, which appears till now to have slumbered, that this mighty one was of their kindred, is awakened in Naomi, and she is stirred up to lay bold on his strength and expect a still larger blessing at his hand. "It is good, my daughter," said she to Ruth, "that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field."

Further encouragement from Boaz, we may presume, and other tokens of favour shown unremittingly till the end of the harvest, at length bring Naomi's faith to exercise itself in his full and perfect favour. From his very gifts she seems to draw a plea for her hopes of yet further and greater, till her heart is enlarged to the full measure of his utmost bountifulness; and she speaks in the confidence of this to her daughter, saying, "Shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? and now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to night in the threshing-floor. Wash thyself, therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor: but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking. And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and he will tell thee what thou shalt do." Naomi would have nothing less than himself and all his wealth, — her lips will scarcely utter the large desire of her faith, but she counts upon it, and lays her plans for it. The name of Baali will no longer satisfy her, she must call him Ishi. And in like manner how sweetly will His chosen ones be encouraged, and allured and comforted by their Kinsman in the second wilderness of the latter day! For a time they may remain unacknowledged. Doubtless Thou art our Father," will they then say, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer." The remembrance of their Redeemer, their Kinsman, will come into their mind, and they will plead with Him then (see Isa. 63: 7 - 64).

In full faith of the blessing, and that Boaz would, as Naomi had expected, tell her what she was to do, Ruth enters on the plan prescribed to her for acquiring Boaz as her husband. In all this Naomi and Ruth were as one — the one by counsel, the other in action, helping forward the common blessing. Thus Ruth now hearkens to the counsel of Naomi, goes down to the threshing-floor and does accordingly. There she seeks a pledge from Boaz. She comes to trust in the shadow of his wing. She would have him spread his skirt over her, doing for her the full services of her near kinsman. She trespasses as far as faith warrants her, but no farther; for Boaz, as they judged, was the nearest kinsman on whom it lay to repair the ruins of Elimelech's house; and thus Ruth is strong in faith, and seeks the blessing confidently, but withal humbly and graciously. And her faith is rewarded; according to it is it done to her. She finds no terrors in this "mighty man of wealth," but all is the law of kindness. For though he cannot acknowledge that he is the first bound to her as under the law of the next kinsman, yet he blesses her in the name of the Lord as his daughter — his adopted one, pledges to her his love, vindicates her, and is her ready debtor in grace to do all that she required. Tenderness and delicacy mark all their intercourse through the night, confidence on her part, and full grace and readiness of love on his; and in the morning he dismisses her with tokens of his affection and care. And laden with these she returns to Naomi, and they rejoice together. Naomi again, in counsel, interprets all the ways of this mighty kinsman, assuring Ruth that he "will not be at rest" until he have perfected his kindness to her.

In all this, we are given clearly to trace the coming ways of God with Israel. Of old He had sought them; He found them in a desert land, He led them about, till He made them to ride on the high places of the earth. This was their time of love. Unsought He then took Israel for His inheritance, and spread His wings over them. "When I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold thy time was the time of love; and I spread My skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness; yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee" (Ezek. 16: 8). But in the latter day, the Lord must be sought unto, as Ruth now seeks Boaz, and as He witnesses by His prophets. "I will go and return to My place; till they acknowledge their offence, and seek My face: in their affliction they will seek Me early" (Hosea 5: 15). Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart" (Jer. 29: 12). And again, "I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock" (Ezek. 36: 37). Then Israel, like Ruth and Naomi, shall encourage themselves in the Lord, shall seek the shelter of His wing again, and the covering of His skirt again, and plead with Him for His land and for His people — the remnant shall return unto the mighty God of Jacob. And the confidence and delicacy of her approach, and his ready acknowledgement of her virtuous and worthy name, which we have observed, sets forth something of the way between the Lord and His Jewish remnant in the days when she is waiting for Him, and desiring to be taken into His banqueting house, and have Him perform all the part of a kinsman for her. The book of Canticles, in its full prophetic import, appears to exhibit the same in beautiful mystical characters. Confidence in His love and yet tenderness and humility will surely mark the path of the spirit of His waiting Israel then.

And their hope shall not be disappointed; for according to Naomi's largest expectations, Boaz seems to take no rest until he finishes the matter. On the morning after he had in grace pledged his kinsman vows to Ruth, he begins his services in accomplishing them, and there is none else that will own her, or take her poverty and ruin upon them. She is disclaimed by him who should have been the repairer of her breach, and Boaz alone will stand forth her kinsman and redeemer. Without delay in presence of the appointed witnesses, be takes Ruth in all her degradation for his own, and endows her with his name and wealth. The poor gleaner of his fields is made to share the magnificence of "this mighty man of wealth;" the poor stranger from Moab is made the first of all the mothers in Israel. Rachel and Leah may be forgotten now, for one has come into their stead to build up the house of Israel.

And the figure of Israel, as they shall be, is here beautifully given to us. For it shall be, when the Lord sees that there is no man, when He wonders that there is no intercessor, that then His own arm will bring salvation. Of all the sons that Zion has brought forth, none will guide her or take her by the hand; the nearest kinsman will fail in that day; counsel will have perished from the wise, and understanding from the prudent; in vain will salvation be looked for to the hills and to the multitudes of mountains. "Then will the Lord be jealous for His land, and pity His people: then will He put on zeal as a cloak," and appear for the recompences for the controversy of Zion. As the true Boaz, He will not be in rest till He "has finished the thing" — till He clothe her with garments of salvation, and rejoice over her as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride.

"So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife; and when he went in unto her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son." The blessings, before pronounced upon them by the people that were in the gate, and the elders, are now made theirs by the hand of the Lord Himself. "The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem." And so it, came to pass. They called the name of this son, that was born to Boaz and Ruth, Obed, and he was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David. And in David, the Bethlehemite, was the throne established; and in David's Son shall it be established for ever: worthy deeds shall be done in Ephratah, and famous things shall be spoken of Bethlehem; for out of Bethlehem-Ephratah has the Seed of Ruth, according to the flesh, come forth, Who shall be Ruler of His people Israel. And then shall the house of Israel be built through this most honoured mother. The Lord Who, concerning the flesh, has come of her, shall make His Israel again a crown of glory in His hand, and a royal diadem. The first dominion, even the kingdom, shall. come to the daughter of Jerusalem. Zion shall no more be termed Forsaken, nor her land Desolate, but she shall be called Hephzibah, and her land Beulah, for the Lord will delight in her, and her land shall be married.

Then shall she blossom and bud, and fill the face of the earth with fruit; the barren shall sing. She that was "the poor and the stranger," the daughter of Moab, and the widow in Judah, shall forget the shame of her youth, and the reproach of her widowhood, for her Maker will be her husband; and she that, was desolate and a captive, and removing to and fro, shall receive her children again within her own borders. The barren shall bear seven. The gleaner shall be the honoured partner of the mighty; for "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that He may set him with princes, even with the princes of His people; He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children" (Ps. 113: 7-9).*

*We may observe, that there was but a comparatively short interval between the return of Naomi and the marriage of Ruth. Naomi had been in captivity ten years; but before the harvest, during which she returned into Judea, was well over, Ruth was the wife of this mighty kinsman. So Judah's night has been long as well as dreary; but, comparatively soon after their return (though, like desolate Naomi, in all their present degradation,) the remnant may become the strong nation, and Judah be made a praise in the earth.

In this action we observe that Boaz, treating with the kinsman, seems to bind himself not to redeem the inheritance of Elimelech, except by taking this poor and afflicted stranger to be his wife. In like manner has the Son of man so joined Himself with Israel, that He will not stand up to claim as His own the earth and its fulness, the world and its kingdoms, but as "King in Zion," as "Son of David," as one with that nation whom of old He had separated to Himself as the lot of His inheritance (see Ps. 2: 6-8). For it is in Israel that He will glorify Himself (Isa. 44: 23); as He says by Isaiah, "This people have I formed for Myself; they shall show forth My praise" (Isa. 43: 21). And it is the full and complete duty of their kinsman that He will then graciously acknowledge and perform. He will avenge their blood, He will redeem the inheritance, and build up His brother's house (Lev. 25: 25; Num. 35: 19; Deut. 25: 5); for "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places; and the city shall be builded up on her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof; and out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry; and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them and they shall not be small. Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them" (Jer. 30: 18-20).

In connection with Ruth, I would here further observe, that the person and action of the Lord Jesus, as the Goel (the Kinsman) of Israel, and the Redeemer of the inheritance, is again strikingly exemplified in the prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah was the faithful Jew in his day; he witnessed the sin and foretold, even weeping, the sorrows of his people. And so the Lord in His day stood in the midst of the evil, alone faithful; and as a second weeping Prophet, He told of the coming judgments of the daughter of His people. In Jeremiah we have the Christ, not in the character of the Lamb of God, but in that of the Kinsman, the faithful weeping Prophet of Israel. And it is in this character that we must bear Him saying, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow." For who can estimate the bitterness of the tears of Jesus when He wept over the city saying, "If thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace!

But He, Who sowed in tears then, shall reap in joy hereafter, and gather His sheaves in the land of Israel, even filling His bosom with them. And so we have also this reaping typified to us in the action of the same prophet purchasing, as the nearest kinsman, the field in Anathoth, which belonged to Hanameel his uncle's son.

In this mystical action Jeremiah was under the direct instruction of the word of the Lord (see Jer. 32). At this time he was in prison for the testimony of God against Israel, and the Chaldean enemy was at the gates of the city. But the prophet has nothing to do but to obey the word which the Lord had sent him. He does not. stand to question the way of the Lord in this strange procedure, nor does be for a moment pause to take counsel in his own heart about it; but being so commanded of the Lord, he weighs the money, subscribes the evidence, seals it, and takes witnesses that he may purchase the field in Anathoth. In faith that "the end of the Lord" would surely appear to be in all truth and mercy, he takes care to secure the evidences of the purchase according to the law and the customs. He gives them into the hand of the faithful Baruch, that they might be put into a place of safe keeping, there to "continue many days;" and then, when his obedience was thus fulfilled, but not till then, he inquires of the Lord, Why was all this? Why, in the present threatened ruin of Israel, when all there was soon to be the sport and spoil of the invaders, should he have been thus required to bury his money in this devoted land? The Lord, in answer, tells him the purposes of His heart, for His secret is with them that fear Him. He tells him that the land, which now for a season was to be desolate without man or beast, should return into the possession of Israel again; that fields should be bought there for money again, and evidences subscribed, and witnesses taken again in the land of Benjamin, and in the cities of Judah.

And such is the action of Israel's true and faithful Kinsman. He has already paid the price of redemption; He weighed it in the balances, when "He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death;" and the Lord has been well pleased, and has "crowned Him with glory and honour," and thus sealed his title to the inheritance; and He, the blessed Kinsman, "continues for many days," expecting till He shall see, in "the world to come," "all things put under Him" (see Heb. 2: 5-9). Then shall He return into the long lost inheritance, be seated in Adam's forfeited dignity, have dominion over the works of God, and be brought forth as the Heir of all things. The earth and the fulness thereof shall be His then in possession, as it is now in title, and the everlasting doors shall be lifted up to Him (Ps. 2, Ps. 8, Ps. 24, Ps. 110). And then shall the full joy of that song be known, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed [us] to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us [them] unto our God kings and priests, and we [they] shall reign on the earth."

Beloved brethren, what a company and what a joy is this to be! Oh, that you and I may have increase of faith to gain fresh spoils from "this present evil world," and to wait for "the world to come!" The world that now is has rejected the Son of God; but "the world to come" shall own Him. It was "this present evil world" that sold Him for thirty pieces of silver. It was this world that crucified Him. It was "the pride of life," "the deceitfulness of riches," the receiving "honour one of another," the every-day buying and selling, planting and building, eating and drinking of this world, that crucified Him. It was "that which is highly esteemed among men," that did this wrong. And it is all this that still refuses to have Him to reign — that would have Him still to delay His coming. But it is all this upon which His day is to come as a thief. Oh! beloved, love not the world, nor the things that are of the world. "Remember Lot's wife." Be ye like unto men that wait for their Lord; desire the days of the Son of Man; be on the house-top, as those who are looking out for His return; abide in the field as those that are apart from the "stuff in the house" (see Luke 17: 31, 32). Die with Jesus; glory in His cross; own as precious the blood of the Son of God (which the world has shed, and is to answer for), by being willing to be rejected with Him. And know that, ere long, He will own your worthless names before the angels of God, and present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To His name, which alone is the worthy one, be all praise for ever and ever!

The Schools of the Prophets

The Schools of the Prophets.

J. G. Bellett.

from Musings on Scripture Volume 2.

[Only articles not found elsewhere are shown here.]

It was on the failure of the law, that the value of the priesthood as ordained of God became known to Israel; but, in the days of Eli, the priesthood itself became corrupted, — the priest's sons, themselves priests, being the leaders in the most flagitious practices. They ground down the people by their exactions, and men "abhorred the offering of the Lord; wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord." The feeble remonstrances of Eli himself were not the sharp rebuke which the occasion needed. And solemn warning — Eli himself, as the one responsible for the maintenance of the honour of God in the priesthood, is made to hear the grievous burden that awaited all his family, and at the same time to know that, although man had profaned the ordinance of God in priesthood, and that God would for this set aside His own order: yet He said, "I will raise up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind, and I will build him. a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever." How refreshing to the weary soul thus constantly to see mercy rejoicing against judgment, and the sure establishment of all that had failed in man's responsibility in the hands of One Who alone is "the faithful and true Witness." But God raised up in Samuel a most distinct witness of the failure of the priesthood, and then it may be said that the ministry of the Prophets commenced (Acts 3: 24). And from this time the heart of faith turned from the priest to the prophet, and it was not that which was in existence which sustained it, but that which was in prospect. The thing announced by Samuel was the execution of summary vengeance on the house of Eli, "because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not." And now Israel was sustained by an extraordinary energy from God in the person of His prophet. He sacrifices as well as judges, taking as it were the place of both Moses and Aaron. "And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord."

In all this we find God teaching Israel that their alone power of standing was in that energy which was immediately from, Him. Samuel raised the stone of Ebenezer; but they understood it not, and vainly thought they could stand in their own strength under another arrangement, and they desired a king. Thus was God's prophet set aside as the priesthood had been corrupted, and surely too with the same end to show that there was only one perfect prophet (Deut. 18), as well as only one faithful priest and righteous king. But we find not only the wilfulness of the people in the rejection of God by rejecting His prophet (1 Sam. 8: 7), but their willingness also to have the ministry of the Prophets in having a king. It was too valuable a blessing to do without; and accordingly we find, throughout the history of the kings, of Judah and Israel, a class of men known by the name of "sons of the Prophets" or "Prophets," apart from those immediately raised up by God Himself. Among them there were many whom God owned and used, but in later times they became the great instruments in fostering rebellion against God and causing the rejection of His word. The origin of this class so conspicuous in later times, we are not able scripturally to determine. But doubtless at first it arose from piety and the fear of God. In the days of Samuel those who feared God would have looked to him more than to Saul; and we find a company gathered round the aged seer, either placed there for instruction by their parents or led by the fear of God themselves, who are distinctly called Prophets (1 Sam. 19: 20). "And Saul sent messengers to take David, and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied." It is from this that the term "Schools of the Prophets" appears to have so generally obtained. That there were institutions of this character appears clear, but the question is, Were they of divine or human origin! We have no scriptural authority for believing them to be of God, but that these men of God, Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha, should have gladly given themselves to the instruction of the young committed to their charge, teaching them those things which God, had revealed to them, and bringing them up to reverence God in all His institutions, is by no means improbable. God was now with the prophet and not with the priest, and therefore real godliness could only be secured through the prophet. It appears also that these young men were used by the prophets, who were raised up by the special energy of the Spirit of God, on any service or errand they might be pleased to send them. Thus we read, "Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets, and said unto him, Gird up thy loins and take this box of oil in thine hand and go to Ramoth-Gilead: and when thou comest thither, look out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in and make him arise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an inner chamber; then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and tarry not. So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramoth-Gilead " (2 Kings 9: 1-4).

There can be little doubt that young men so educated would by degrees have a character attached to them, not according to the actual energy of the Spirit of God in them, but according to the education they had received. And although God from among them might raise up instruments fitted to be employed in His service, yet that is not the thing which would have been regarded so much as their official training. And the influence which they had with the people would not have been that which flowed directly from God, but from that which men had instituted, to perpetuate a class among them, which might be useful to them as expositors of the mind of God.

This has been one way of man's waywardness — to seek to secure God's blessings by his own wisdom and prudence. If God gave a prophet, man would desire to have this blessing in his own way; and accordingly he contrives an institution for the supply of prophets. God may bless such an institution, and doubtless did under the instruction of Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha, who appear in their respective times to have been looked on as the heads of these institutions. It was thus that Elijah was looked upon, "and the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off; and they two stood by Jordan. And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The Spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha " (2 Kings 2: 3, 5, 7, 15).

So we have seen Samuel regarded and subsequently Elisha (2 Kings 9). But the attribute of "jealous" belongs to God; and it is in this that He is especially jealous, that He will not allow any human institution to supply the place of His own prerogative grace. And it was not in the power of any of. these illustrious men of God to impart to another the energy of the Spirit in which alone they could act efficiently. Doubtless these schools of the prophets were a means of spreading the fear and knowledge of God. The priest's lips which should have kept knowledge had become corrupted and testified against by the prophets. But when the master-spirit of these men of God had departed with them, the institutions which had been under their superintendence survived; but instead of ensuring the end for which piety had set them up, they became the greatest means of producing corruption and aiding apostasy. These institutions had the same moral power after the death of Elijah and Elisha as when presided over by them. And those who issued from them came to the people with a claim of authority which usage had rendered venerable. And thus, by the very means of perpetuating prophets, was this ordinance of God corrupted, not that He gave it up, but raised up, not in these schools but in the energy of His own Spirit, His prophets to prophesy not only against the priests but against "the prophets of Israel." And real discernment then stood in distinguishing between the Lord's and the people's prophets. It does not appear that any one of the authenticated prophets of the Lord was raised up from out of these schools.* But from hence it came to pass that in process of time there was an accredited class of persons, consulted on special occasions and exercising an immense moral influence, the value of which must have depended on their individual piety and simple subjection to what God had revealed.

* Elisha may seem an exception, but he stood as the servant of Elijah, as Gehazi subsequently to him, to pour water on his hands.

But the weight of that influence was speedily turned against God. It was more popular to prophesy smooth things and deceits, and nothing is so dear to the human heart as to have God's sanction to its own lusts. And hence the popularity of the prophets who would say, "Thus saith the Lord," when the Lord had not spoken. It is not to be supposed that these prophets were always inventing lies, but they corrupted the word of God and rendered it suitable to man's taste (2 Cor. 2: 17). They must imitate the real prophets in many of their expressions, and yet after all only produce their own vain speculations.

"I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, which think to cause My people to forget My name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten My name for Baal. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not My word like as a fire? saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal My words every one from his neighbour. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say, He saith. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord. And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord. And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even punish that man and his house" (Jer. 23: 25-34). And the misery and wretchedness of the people was, that they had not the ability to discern between the real prophet of God, and the educated prophet of man.

Man had taken God's ordinance into his own keeping — he had an institution of his own for supplying that which God could only efficiently supply. Accordingly we find the prophets as much testified against by the special witnesses of God in the midst of apostasy, as the priests. They are both classed together. But the prophets appear to have been more actively engaged in helping forward the apostasy, and therefore to be more frequently addressed by the real prophets of the Lord. This testimony of the Lord against the prophets increased as the apostasy set in. The nearer the ruin approached (such is the way of His grace), the more testimony He raised concerning it. But in proportion as God multiplied His witnesses, we find the prophets of the people multiplied also.

We have a remarkable early instance of the influence which these prophets exercised, recorded in 1 Kings 22. We find Jehoshaphat in league with Ahab, and persuaded to go against Ramoth-Gilead. "And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said. Go up, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might enquire of him? And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me but evil." So Micaiah "came to the king, and the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go up against Ramoth-Gilead to battle or shall we forbear?" Thus was the case of Israel according to the prophet — "a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits " (Isa. 30: 9, 10).

But it is more especially in the prophets contemporary with the apostasy, that we find the powerful influence exercised by these prophets: Jeremiah at Jerusalem, and Ezekiel at Chebar, each found in them the greatest hindrance to the effectual reception of the word of the Lord. In Jeremiah we have three distinct features, — first, God's testimony against the prophets. "And the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder." (Jer. 4: 9). "A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule b.) their means; and My people love to have it so " (Jer. 5: 30, 31). "And from the prophet even unto the priest, every one dealeth falsely" (Jer. 6: 13). "Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place. Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in My name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in My name, and I sent them not; yet they say, sword and famine shall not be in this land; by sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed " (Jer. 14: 13-15). "I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing . . . . . for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land" (Jer. 23: 14, 15).

A second feature was the influence that these prophets exerted among the people. "The priests ruled by their means." "Then said they, Come, let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words" (Jer. 18: 18). "Hananiah, the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon: and I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the Lord; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the Lord, even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the Lord do so: the Lord perform thy words which thou hast prophesied. Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak. in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people; the prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the Lord hath truly sent him" (Jer. 28: 1-9). These prophets prophesied of peace and present establishment, according to the word in Micah 2: 11, "If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink, he shall even be the prophet of this people."

It was thus that man's own institution became a snare unto him, for God taketh the wise in their own craftiness. The very means they had taken of perpetuating a blessing among them became, by their own wilfulness, the means of blinding them; as in a subsequent period, the scribes and Pharisees and doctors of the law, in man's estimate so many supports of religion, were the great means of hindering the people confessing Jesus as the Christ.

As a third feature, we notice the virulent opposition of the prophets to God's prophets. "Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears" (Jer. 26: 11, compare Acts 6) "Why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth which maketh himself a prophet to you"? (Jeremiah 29: 27)

The whole of Ezekiel 13 applies to the point in question, but is too long to be quoted. It is painful but profitable to trace the progress of religious corruption; it arises not from without, but from within. No means of outward temptation could apparently have brought the people of Judah to rebel with so bold a front, as corrupt prophets and a corrupt priesthood. It was the blinding power of holding certain ordinances of God, not in the power of God, but in the form which human wisdom had substituted for them, that made the people reply, "Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil " (Jer. 44: 15-17).

Now these things are recorded for our admonition, and we have the most substantial authority for asserting, that the declension and apostasy of the church would arise from those who are accredited as teachers within the church.

"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction" (2 Peter 2: 1). They very early showed themselves, as in the church of Corinth. "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ" (2 Cor. 11: 13). And at Galatia, "I would they were even cut off which trouble you" (Gal. 5: 12). St. John alludes to them, "They went out from us, but they were not of us" (1 John 2: 19). "For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not Jesus Christ come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist" (2 John 7).

This early attempt of Satan to undermine the church from within, was that which the, apostles were constantly guarding against, and formed a considerable portion of the afflictions of the gospel. Trying indeed must it have been to the soul of the apostle, to find all in Asia turned away from him to listen perhaps to those who would set before them doctrines more suited to their tastes. It was thus too at Corinth, where although they had ten thousand instructors, yet not many fathers.

Here was the germ of the evil: why not a class of men or a profession of men to be accredited as instructors and teachers, the same as prevailed in their schools of philosophy? This was the readiest way in man's thought to provide for the instruction of the church; to heap to themselves teachers. And it was thus early in the church that we see its ruin provided for, and the dawning of that season which is not yet fully matured, when they would not endure sound doctrine. The secret is, that we can never be taught except in obedience. "He that hath an ear, let him hear." Now a recognised class of teachers, as such, relieves from the responsibility laid upon us by the Lord. "Take heed how ye hear." Men hear what they like to hear — hear after their own lusts, instead of proving what they hear, and holding fast that which is good. Instruction to the church never assumes the ground of ignorance, but that of competent understanding. "I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it" . . . "and ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things" (1 John 2: 20, 21). And the Second and Third Epistles throw the responsibility on christians, not of receiving teachers as teachers, — let them bear what name they might — but of testing their doctrine. In St. Paul's discourse to the elders of Ephesus the Spirit leads him to point out the corruption of the church as arising from within. "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them " (Acts 20: 29, 30). And the solemn charge of the apostle to Timothy, points out the result of that which he had noticed to the elders of Ephesus. "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry " (2 Tim. 4: 15).

Now in all these instances, there was no guard against these teachers by having recourse to another authorised and accredited class — for the teachers marked as characterising the apostasy, would be authorised and accredited in the eyes of men; but the only way to meet the difficulty and escape the snare, would be individual faithfulness. He alone in Israel who followed Jehovah fully, would have had moral ability to discern between the wheat and chaff — the prophet of the Lord and the prophet of his own heart. Even so at this present time, a single eye to Jesus, subjection to the word of His grace, and regard to the unction — the common possession of the church, will enable us to discern between the teacher, the gift of the ascended Jesus, and the teacher of man's institution. The provision the Lord has made for the church, are the abiding presence of the Comforter, and the word of His grace, and ministry. He presents Himself to the church not only as having the seven Spirits of God, the fulness of all spiritual life, but as holding in His hand the seven stars, the perfectness of all ministry. Now the error of the church has been analogous to the sin of Israel. She has not denied to the Lord the possession of all spiritual power; but ministry as distinctly flowing from Him (Eph. 4), and therefore, only exercised responsibly unto Him as the Lord ("there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord"), was very early set aside by human institutions; arising doubtless from real piety, and from the desire originally to perpetuate teachers in the church.

As in the case of the prophets, Jehovah had His servants among those brought up in the schools of the prophets; so surely the Holy Ghost, as the sovereign dispenser of gifts of ministry, has raised up many from universities and academics to bear witness to Jesus; but always with the grand characteristic of His teaching, the setting aside, and in the background, of all advantages derived from such sources, on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, which He teaches. We may smile at the disputations and subtleties of the schoolmen of a former day, but the principle is the same. It is not whether better instruction is afforded in the schools now, but whether the schools themselves are not institutions of man, for the provision of that which the Lord Jesus most jealously keeps in His own hand. It is not to the purpose to say that many of the most faithful ministers have been raised up out, of these schools; this is not denied: because the Holy Spirit will not allow human arrangements to interfere with His own sovereignty. But if these schools furnish a supply of men accredited as ministers, they must necessarily exert a powerful human influence, much more so than perhaps we are disposed to allow. We have seen the Lord raising up prophets, and men having prophets of their own; and the prophet of the Lord brought into instant collision with the prophets of the people. Jesus, as ascended, gives teachers to the church, and men have provided for teachers in the church. May we not, then most reasonably expect that the teachers the Lord has given will find the greatest hindrance from those whom man has provided for himself?

The prophet was not an integral part of the former dispensation, but only came in on the. failure of the priesthood; but ministry is the very power of this dispensation (Eph. 4); "pastors, teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." Now if God has provided this in one way, even by distinct gift of the Spirit, and man has substituted another way, we see what necessarily must be the result, even the most fearful form of apostasy. "The beast and the false prophet" go together, the former could not prevail without the help of the other. Professing christians could not easily be persuaded to tell a lie, unless they had found those who would teach them after human tradition, instead of the plain word of God. And. nothing could be devised more effectually to stifle enquiry and to lull the conscience, than a humanly accredited ministry, teaching things only which the hearers expect to hear. When this is the case, the solemn responsibility of speaking and hearing are alike forgotten. And the very means provided for blessing is by Satan's craft turned into a hindrance.

We hear constantly of a young man intending to go into the ministry. Now fully granting the honesty of the intention, the very expression shows the popular feeling in the matter. Let such a well-intentioned young man be sent to a university, or academy, or institution, and after a few years becomes forth as an accredited minister. Now all this appears a direct taking of ministry out of the hands of the Lord Jesus into our own hands. We should see the folly of a pious Israelite sending his son to be educated for a prophet, as if God needed human preparation for the instrument he would use. And surely to educate for the ministry is equally or more preposterous in a dispensation in which the Holy Spirit, as sovereign divider of His own gifts, is especially manifested.

We read of Samuel being "established as a prophet of the Lord," but all his education under the aged and indulgent Eli could never have furnished him with what he was commissioned to reveal. We find Paul thanking the Lord for "putting him into the ministry," and unto this his education under Gamaliel profited not. It is not whether one whom the Lord has put into the ministry, may use the aids within his reach to enable him more efficiently to work, for we find Paul not only exhorting Timothy to stir up the gift he had received, but likewise telling him "till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine;" but, whether the most vigilant and wise training can make a minister of Christ.

If it be allowed that the various ministries in the church are distinct gifts, then the recognition of the gift must precede the education, if indeed that be needed. And it would be no longer saying, "I think of entering into the ministry," but, "woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel!" The very worst evil of human institutions for supplying ministers, is the effect they have of weakening the sense of responsibility to the Lord in the exercise of ministry. And if ministry be not exercised responsibly unto Him, it is not received in responsibility to Him. "Take heed how ye hear." And the result is, that instead of ministry being regarded as that which is for the health of the church, ministers are regarded for their own sake. And trivial as it may be, the practical difference between regarding ministers or ministry is very great. We have seen in two former instances, the accredited organs of religious instruction — the prophets before the captivity, and the scribes and lawyers during the time of our Lord's ministry, all arrayed against the truth. We have solemn warning as to the parallel to be exhibited at the close of this dispensation. And surely it is not too much to say, that the virtual rejection of the Lordship of Jesus and of the sovereignty of the Spirit in the gift of ministry, has prepared the way for a most unhealthy state of mind in the great majority of christians, who are prepared to receive no more truth, than that which human institutions have thought fit to supply. And it may be safely affirmed, that ignorance of scripture does very generally prevail, and so much insubjection of mind to the word of God, that a plain declaration of scripture is set aside by its supposed contrariety to some received dogma.

The priesthood of Israel stood in order, and we find an early departure from the present order in Nadab and Abihu — awaiting the completeness of its corruption in the sons of Eli. But prophecy stood in power — holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and the corruption was the attempt to establish it in form. Now the whole character of this dispensation is power; we have a priest constituted after the power of an endless life — the word of God is powerful — we have received not the spirit of fear but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind. And the preaching of the apostle was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. The apostasy then is characterised as having the form, but denying the power of godliness. Formal ministry or humanly accredited ministers, must necessarily therefore be the greatest hindrance to the truth. The minds even of professing christians are not in a moment prepared to believe a lie, and a certain previous training by being taught those things which they ought not, must necessarily bring about that result so fearfully marked in the scriptures: — "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved; and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure to unrighteousness."

The apostasy of natural religion was, reasoning about God, and therefore He "gave them up to their own hearts' lusts" (Rom. 1: 19-26). But now it is the departure from the truth by means of human teaching. The real question is often effectually obscured in disputes about office and order — it is, where is the power of either? Can man's institution at all provide for the presence of the Holy Ghost? Does He still abide according to the Lord's promise, in the church? Let it be granted that human arrangement had secured the exact apostolic order, and that every office in the church was arranged after the apostolic model — what then? there might be the form without the power still. Now spiritual wisdom has ever been exercised in the discernment of where God is present in the midst of man's corruptions. There were holy priests after Eli — there were true prophets amidst Israel's prophets. There are many most valued ministers among those who are accredited by human institutions, but true wisdom will be to acknowledge that which is of God, and to discern that which is of man. Many are not content to be acknowledged as ministers of Christ — they rest on something besides that "grace given to them according to the measure of the gift of Christ," and demand to be received on credentials simply human. Now the recognizing this would be the same as to recognize Israel's prophets. And would lead us, which is in fact the apostasy of the dispensation; to recognize human credentials, where the Spirit of God was not. It is a much readier way to come authenticated by man, than to make "full proof of our ministry." And nothing is more unhealthy, than for a believer to be seeking the authentication of his ministry, and demanding to be received as a minister, because he has been educated for the ministry. The receiving any is on infinitely higher grounds than any gift of ministry, and that is, as "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling," — "heirs of God and jointheirs with Christ." Our highest privileges are our common privileges, and no ministry not even that of an apostle could ever put one so high as the fact of being a child has already put him. It is indeed a most blessed thing to minister to the body of Christ, but a more blessed thing to be of the body. And wherever we see the tendency to exalt ministers into a privileged class or order, of nearer access to God than others, instead of recognizing them as those having a distinct gift of the Spirit, we are in danger of having ministers in name, and not in the "sufficiency of God" in the church (2 Cor. 3: 5).

Let the solemn warning in the case of Israel's prophets be looked to by us, and while we seek to honour the Holy Ghost in the thankful acknowledgement of any of His gifts, may we be kept from the sin of acknowledging any office in the church where He is not. "Having then gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation; he that giveth let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth with diligence; he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness." May the Spirit be manifested in the church in all His varied gifts for its present need, and in all His manifold grace, that the name of the Lord may be magnified! Amen.

Separation and Worship

Separation and Worship.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend, vol. 13, 1886, p. 141.

(These are notes of an address, as far back as 1840. — Ed.)

In order to give Egypt such a character before God as would allow the display of His judgment, Egypt must have the blessing through Joseph; for it is despised or neglected blessing that matures sin. As the Lord says, "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father;" i.e. they had despised the riches of love and goodness. So Judas perfected his sin by remaining unmoved at the gift of the sop, the token of personal kindness. Thus another king arose, "which knew not Joseph." The goodness of God towards her by Joseph Egypt had forgotten, and thus her sin was full, and she was ripe for judgment. Without the previous ministry of Joseph, therefore, the fulness of her sin could not have come, as now the world is convinced of sin, because they did not believe in Jesus.

This makes Egypt a sample of the world.

The Exodus is the separation of the people of God from the world. And I was lately struck with this feature in the scene, that Israel was to go out of Egypt in order to serve, or hold, a feast to the Lord (Ex. 5: 1; Ex. 3: 18; Ex. 8: 1, 20; Ex. 9: 1, 13; Ex. 10: 3, 9); for they could not serve Him or do sacrifice to Him in the land of their bondage and before that people. (Ex. 8: 25-27.) Their religious service was of such a character that Egypt would not tolerate it. It was something that so entirely went across all the thoughts of that people that they would persecute and destroy them if they were the witnesses of it. They must therefore go forth.

Now, what a character does this simple fact give Egypt or the world! God had no sanctuary there. The thoughts and ways of that land were so opposed to Him that He could not set His name among them. His people must go forth ere they could open His temple or raise His altar, because the very things which Israel would, as it were, sacrifice or crucify, Egypt was wont to worship. (Ex. 8: 26, 27.) Israel must therefore be separated from Egypt before they could hold their feast to the Lord.

And so it was afterwards. There was a fence all round the Holy Land, a wall of partition that separated Israel in Canaan from the nations. No stranger could eat the Passover, no uncircumcised one could hold the feast of the Lord. And so is it still. We must worship "in spirit and in truth." No man can call on God aright but by the Spirit which gives adoption, nor call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost. It is still on the principle of separation that God is to be served or worshipped, as much as when Israel had to go into the wilderness, out of Egypt, to do so, or to distinguish themselves from all the nations by circumcision to do so.

The wall of partition is different, it is true; the place outside the land is not a mere desert, it is true; but the place of service is as distinct as ever it was. "Ye must be born again." This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent. "To whom coming, as unto a living stone . . . ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood." Here is the desert, the separated place, the sanctuary of God, within the partition-wall. The Holy Ghost raises it now. Union with Christ forms it; and within that place the abominations of the world are sacrificed now, as the abominations of Egypt were sacrificed in the desert of old. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, are to be crucified there, though they are all of the world.

And what was the full feast which Israel held to the Lord when they got out into the desert? Why, it was actually furnished to them by Egypt herself. As soon as they stood on the banks of the Red Sea, they began to hold their feast. They did not wait to reach the mountain. (Ex. 3: 12.) It is quite true under that mountain they did afterwards serve, or do sacrifice, to God. (Ex. 19-40; Lev. 19.) But Egypt herself gave them a song before they reached the appointed place. Egypt was bold enough so far to resist them as to follow them into the very jaws of the Red Sea. Her enmity was perfect; but all this ended in giving Israel a song of triumph over Egypt. (Ex. 15.) Before they reached the place to which they had been called this joy was theirs. And so with us, beloved. Satan has done his worst, but Jesus, by death and resurrection, has overthrown him. Had not Satan drawn out his chariots and his horses, all the strength and power of his kingdom, to the hill of Calvary, the song which the resurrection puts into our mouth would not have been ours. But it is ours now, and he can never silence it. It has been raised by himself, and he can never silence it; and we too carry the echo of it in our hearts all through the place, till we reach the mountain of the Lord. In this sense Egypt gave Israel that song, in this sense the god of this world gives our hearts this song; for the eater himself yields meat, the strong man himself sweetness.

And, let me add, that what livingly and practically separates us day by day from the world is communion with Jesus. Faith, or the Spirit, or the new nature, is the first great exodus — our first going into the wilderness, out of Egypt, to hold our feast to the Lord, our act of separation from the world; but that place of separation can be maintained daily only by communion with Jesus, through the same Spirit who first drew us out. J. G. B.

The Queen of Sheba

The Queen of Sheba

J. G. Bellett.

Section 2 of: Musings on Scripture, Volume 3

"The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here." — Luke 11: 31.

This "elect lady" stands in a line of loved and honoured women, who, now and again, from the beginning to the end, appear in the varied and wonderful action of the Book of God. We shall find in what is said of her, not only historic information, but both moral and typical instruction. And this is common in the inspired narratives; so that the soul is edified and the mind furnished from the same page.

As to her country or kingdom, I would just observe that we read of several Shebas. One was grandson of Abraham by Keturah (Gen. 25: 1-3); another was of the family of Shem, being grandson of Eber (Gen. 10: 21-28); another was great grandson of Ham, and nephew of Seba (Gen. 10: 7). The Sheba, of which this history speaks, mast have been connected with the last of these, the descendant of Ham, because the Lord speaks of the queen as being from "the south," and "from the utmost parts of the earth," while Keturah's family was sent to the cast, and Shem's portion was more at home or central.

As to herself, we may presume, she had never heard the voice of a prophet, or seen the oracles of God. She had no advantages (as we speak) from education, and was a perfect stranger to the God of Israel. Her soul had, therefore, but a slender stock to trade with. She had simply, in her own land, heard of Solomon, his acts and his wisdom. This was all she had; but, with such small provisions, she was ready to take a long untried journey.

There is something admirable in this. The state of the soul itself was tested. It proved the love of wisdom to be in her heart; since a mere distant report about it so moves her. As the common saying is, "a word to the wise is sufficient." This is the admirable feature in her which the Lord notices. "A reproof enters more into a wise man, than a hundred stripes into a, fool." It is the faculty within, the sense or taste of the soul, that is approved by this, and that is indeed the important thing after all. "Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom;" while, on the other hand, "a fool hath no delight in understanding" (Prov. 18: 1, 2). Here are two different sources discovered to us by the Spirit; and the first of these was that which rose in the breast of this "queen of Sheba." Her heart was right. She had a "desire" towards wisdom, and, through that desire, could separate herself from her home and her kingdom, to seek it at the distant feet of Solomon.

This is the admirable thing in her, which drew forth the notice of the Lord.

The Pharisees had asked for a sign, the sure witness of a bad state of mind. The Lord "sighed deeply in His spirit" as He heard this, we read in another evangelist (Mark 8: 12), and also with such a mind contrasted the mind that was in this "queen of Sheba"; showed her to be one that was because her heart was in it; while these Pharisees moved by a little to do a great deal, just of course were starving in a land of plenty, just of course because they had no desire. They were asking for signs in the very midst of the wonders of the hand of Christ. She took a long journey from a barren land, at the mere report of God's provisions in a distant country. With a true thirst of soul she used what she had, though it was but little. They were reproaching the Lord, as though He had given them nothing, while they were in the thick of His bounties. Here was the mighty moral distance between them. And the Lord notices it. That which was shining on her table was but a taper (according to the Lord's figure in this passage); but the eye of her body was so single, that it gave light enough for her. Their table was bright with a number of brilliant lamps! but the eye of their body was evil, and they stumbled at noon-day, as in the night.

Here lay the difference. And on this all depends. There is no straitness in God, no lack or indistinctness in the testimony. The candle is not under the bushel, but on a candlestick, and needs nothing in size or brilliancy. Even one raised from the dead could add nothing to Moses and the Prophets. The "signs of the times" for Jesus are as clear as the ordinances of the heavens, as the morning and evening sky. But the question is, what is the state of our vision? Are we willing to do His will? Is the love of God in us, or the love of the honour of man? (John 5, 7) Is the eye single? Is the body full of light? If so, the whole region around us will be full of light also. Every saying of God, every doing of God, will be approved then: all in Jesus, and about Jesus, and from Jesus, will shine before us then. We shall justify wisdom in all her ways. The whole atmosphere which the Lord spreads will be resplendent, the path which faith takes will be lightsome; "the whole shall be full of light as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light." It was so with this honoured woman. She does not complain that her taper was small. It gave some light, and this she followed. She followed a distant report with a wishful desirous heart, and she had neither time, nor taste to complain that her journey was darksome. It was "full of light" under her "single eye."

This was the admiration of the Lord! Gracious Master! If we did but value His smile, if we did but prize our power and opportunity to refresh His spirit! This was the excellency of her spirit, by which, in the judgment, she condemns the evil-eyed Pharisee.*

*I might observe that the "men of Nineveh" exhibit a like excellent spirit, because, a few words of reproof, or of threatening, from the Prophet lead them to repentance (Jonah 3). The conscience in them was sensitive, as the desire of wisdom was in the "queen of the south." Both drew out the admiration of Christ (Luke 11: 82).

In this way our souls receive a very important lesson. We may desire for ourselves, though in a land of Goshen, and not in the utmost Sheba, that we may have like hearty value for every thing of God. This is the most excellent condition. "To love what is good is better than knowing much about it." Better to desire wisdom, than to have gathered a large store of knowledge, or of information — better to have the spiritual tastes and senses quick and vigorous, than great provision to feed them with.

We know this in human things. How many may be listening to the same music, or gazing on the same scenery, and yet how various the hidden motion that is produced. The materials have been common to all who have formed the crowd of listeners or spectators. Yes — but the effects have been infinitely various, because the faculty of delight, in each, has been various, the senses have been of a finer, or coarser mould (perhaps too, in a thousand gradations) and in that lies the reason of all this diversity in the impulse or influence produced.

And so I am sure it is in the ways of the Spirit. The Lord can give the faculty within us an improved or a finer tone. And this is excellent praise. We honour Him by this acknowledgement, that He has our spirits within His reach, and that He can sweep the chords there, or quicken the senses there. That is His glorious power. He can impart, it is true, further knowledge, and let in the brighter light of new mysteries; but is it not more blessed (may I ask) when He gives new energy to the understanding itself, or a more delicate tone to the sensibilities of the spiritual mind?

That is, indeed, I believe, the brightest dearest hour of the soul. And how constantly this may be seen; how constantly do we find that many, who know less, have more fervency! And why? Because, as I have been saying, the faculty within, the spiritual powers of the saint, have been retouched, as it were, by the finger of God. Mary Magdalene, for instance, had but small materials. Her knowledge was not only narrow, but clouded. She ignorantly sought the sepulchre with her spices. But her heart was alive. The faculty, or sensibilities, had been awakened, and her fervent spirit expresses itself in strong, though irregular, action. There was no great entrance of light into the minds of the thousands who were joined together in the day of Pentecost. But there was a fresh visitation to the soul itself. They received the Holy Ghost. And what gladness and what singleness of heart! What victory over the world, and what conscious possession of a kingdom within, is seen in them!

Sure I am that our real power depends on the state of the faculty itself, than on the provision for its exercise, on the "eye" being "unclouded," than on the extent of the field of vision. It is hearts we want, and then we shall feel the captivating power of Christ. For there is plenty of that in Him, if we could but get in contact with it. But there is the mischief. The light that is in as is clouded. Many an attraction finds its way to our minds, which would not dare to show itself there, if Jesus were enthroned already, if our sight of Him had been so vivid as to leave His loved and worshipped image there continually.

It is so; and may our hearts increasingly experience it. And this lesson and these encouragements we gather from the history before us. The moral of a story is always the deepest part of it. There may be the three things, as in this story

1st. — The event, or historic circumstances;

2ndly. — The type;

3rdly. — The moral.

The moral lies the most within, and it was the glory of the mind of Christ to draw it forth.

The story is, originally, given to us in 1 Kings 10 and in 2 Chr. 9. She appears at the beginning of it in the character which the Lord, as we have seen, so beautifully and profitably noticed. She trafficked for wisdom, and the Lord's anointed king in Jerusalem was her merchant. With him, and for it, she bartered gold, and spice, and precious stones. So true a disciple of that word was she, in the spirit of her mind (though she knew nothing of it in the book of God), that "the merchandise of wisdom is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold." And the Lord will not be her debtor. He gives her far more than she had bargained for. Solomon, His servant and prophet, does more than answer her questions; he gives her such a sight of his magnificence, that she is "satisfied with fatness." "There was left no more spirit in her;" and "blessed" was she that hungered and thirsted, for she was filled. And blessed surely it ever is, when our hunger and thirst are of that fine and heavenly quality, that we can bring them into God's presence, when they are such as bear their own necessary witness with them, that none can answer them but the Lord Himself, His storehouse and fountains.

This was a sister and co-heir of Solomon. Solomon had desired wisdom, and, with it, he had inherited all things. The "queen of Sheba" had desired wisdom, and in like manner, with it, was given all things. They must have understood one another. She came from amid the dark and distant Gentiles, children of Ham; he had been reared in the city of solemnities, in the Goshen of wisdom, and knowledge, and truth; but the spirit in each was the same, and natural distances, and human diversities, are thoroughly lost in the commanding light and energy of the Spirit who knit them with one mind together.

Precious and interesting is the moral of all this simple and unvarnished tale of other days — other, it is true, as to time and place, but the same with our own in the grace and power of the same Spirit. It was the moral of it, which at this time chiefly attracted me. But I would just add, that in this distinguished Gentile we have a sample, or type, of the nations by and by. For as she, in the days of Solomon, the son of David (which were the days of the typical glory), went up to Jerusalem, seeking for the wisdom that was in the anointed of the Lord, so, in the age of the real glory, the millennial age of the true Solomon, the nations will wait in the same city, with the same desire, and purpose, of heart. They will say one to the other, "come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths."

The Queen of Sheba and the Eunuch

The Queen of Sheba and the Eunuch.

1 Kings 10; 2 Chr. 9; Acts 8.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend, vol. 13, 1886, p. 29.

(These notes have not, as far as known, been hitherto published. E.D.)

These two narratives, found in distant parts of the Word, in common illustrate truths which are as clear and important to us in this distant age and place as ever they were, whether in the time of 2 Chronicles 9 or of Acts 8. In the queen of Sheba and the Ethiopian eunuch, who belonged it may be to the same country, though at such different times, we find dissatisfaction in the best things short of Christ; but rest and fulness in Him, be He known by us, whether in grace or glory.

The queen of the south had all royal honours upon her, and all royal resources around her; she could command the delights of the children of men, and evidently had health and capacity to enjoy them. The world was at her disposal, but the world had left her with an aching, craving heart, and she found no satisfaction in her royal estate, and, ill at ease, she took a long, untried journey from the uttermost parts of the earth to Jerusalem, because she had heard of the wisdom of the king there "concerning the name of the Lord."

She reached Jerusalem, and there she found all and more than she had heard of or calculated on. Her spirit was filled; her eye saw something in everything there that possessed her soul with joy unspeakable, and full of glory; for Christ was there. He shone in those days, in His image and reflection — Solomon, and she was brought into communion with Christ in His glory in the city of the great king, called, as it has well been, "The heaven below the skies." The world had left her heart an aching void, and Christ had now filled it to overflowing; she counted this merchandize better than that of gold and silver, better than that of riches, and getting her questions answered, her soul satisfied, her eye filled with visions of glory, of glory according to God, she presented her gold, her frankincense, her precious stones, the wealth of her kingdom, as a small thank-offering.

The eunuch was a great man under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians; but he had long since, I may say, proved that the vanities of the Ethiopians would not do for him. He appears before us as one who had already cast the idols of that land to the moles and to the bats, and taken up the confession of the name of the God of Israel. In the obedience of this faith he had just gone, where first we see him, to Jerusalem, the city of solemnities, where the worship of the God of Israel was conducted, and he had gone there as a worshipper. But he had left Jerusalem dissatisfied; he was on his way home to the south country with a craving, aching heart; he was still an enquirer, as surely so as the queen of Sheba had been in her day, when she left her native country for the same city — Jerusalem — and the contrast here is vivid. Jerusalem had satisfied the spirit of the queen, but it had left the soul of the eunuch a barren and thirsty place.

These are among the things which show themselves to us in these most interesting pieces of history. But why this? Why would not Jerusalem do for the eunuch what it had done for the queen? Christ was not there in this his day as He had been in her day. Jerusalem was not now the city where the king of glory, in His beauty, was seen and reflected, and where some image of Him, and some token of His presence and magnificence, might be traced everywhere. It was no mount of transfiguration to him as it had been to her. Religiousness was there, but not Christ; the observances and ceremonials of a carnal worship, the doings of a worldly sanctuary, were there, but not the presence of the Christ of God. This made all the difference, and tells us why the eunuch left that very same Jerusalem with an aching heart, which had filled the spirit of the queen of Sheba with an abounding, overflowing joy.

His heart however is to be filled as well as hers, and that too out of the same fountain — Christ; only it is through the prophet Isaiah that Christ is to fill it, and not through Solomon. In a desert spot, on the journey which was taking him back from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, Philip, the servant and witness of Jesus, is directed by the Holy Ghost to meet him. He addresses himself to him in the aching, craving state of mind to which I have already alluded; it possessed him thoroughly, so that no strange circumstance, such as that of meeting a stranger in that desert place, and being addressed by him, has power to move him. The whole scene bears this character — there was the absorbing presence of one thing in his soul, "the expulsive power of a new affection" there. He was reading Isaiah with emotion of heart under the convictions and awakenings of the Spirit of God; but Christ was soon to be introduced to him, and the desert should then rejoice, and in the thirsty land springs of water should flow. "Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus." And the eunuch then "went on his way rejoicing." Joy did in him and with him now what in earlier days it had done in and with the queen of the south. She trafficked for wisdom, and counted the merchandize of it better than that of gold and silver and precious stones, and she was willing to part with the wealth of her kingdom for it. He now can part with Philip, since his spirit is filled with the joy of the Lord, and he has got the Christ of God as she had got Him.

Precious and beautiful illustrations of these like weighty truths, only we make certain differences. It was the world in all its royal splendour and resources which had left her heart a beggar, as she had tasted it in her own country. It was religiousness which had left his heart a beggar, as he had proved it in the city of solemnities; but whether it be this or that, the splendour of the world, or the religion of the world, the heart is but beggary and drought without Jesus.

And then again there is this further difference — it was Christ in the glory that was introduced to the queen, it was Christ in grace and humiliation that was introduced to the eunuch. Solomon reflected the King in His beauty to her, Isaiah preached the Lamb in His blood to him; but no matter, both were satisfied. Christ, in the dispensation of present grace and blood-sealed salvation, gives satisfaction and rest to the sinner. Christ, in the display of coming glories in the kingdom, will give satisfaction to the natives of the world, and to the whole creation of God. It is Christ, whether as the Lamb of God on the altar, or as the King of Glory on the throne; and His people are satisfied, their searchings and enquiries are over. The sinner goes away with the Lamb satisfied and at rest; the creation of God will rejoice in Him of whom it is written, "Glory and honour are in His presence, strength and gladness are in His place." The whole creation, in all its range of manifold regions, shall share in the power of that day. The daughter of Zion, the natives with their kings, the beasts of the forests and the cattle of the hills, the floods and the woods, the hills, the valleys, shall there in their several ways taste and witness this universal joy, the deep satisfaction in which the creation of God shall then repose.

But once more, and I will notice another difference. In the day of the glory the king must be sought — the queen of the south went up to wait on the king in Zion. In the day of grace the Saviour seeks - the Ethiopian nobleman was sought and found by the servant and witness of Jesus the Saviour. How fitting! how beautifully correct though various all this is! How all commends itself to our souls, telling us something of the perfections which shine in the ways of Him with whom we have to do! J. G. B.

Salvation and Conflict

Salvation and Conflict.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 16, 1889, p. 185.

The three salvations are the fruit of three different things; first, the salvation of the soul by faith — this is the fruit of faith; second, the present energy and fruit of the Holy Ghost is the intermediate salvation; thirdly, the salvation of the body is the fruit of hope.

There are two blessed things of God in which we can array ourselves — the power of God, and the love of God. The former we get in the first chapter of Ephesians, the latter in the third chapter. These chapters furnish the man fitted for the armour; this man of God finds himself in the citadel of the power and love of God. You must get your soldier first, a man in the Lord. The armour is the second thing; the man strong in the power and love of God is the one fit for the armour, the new man in Christ, and an earthly inheritance is not for him; he has to fight for the throne, not for the footstool.

"Loins girt about with truth," I judge, is interpreted in Ephesians 4: 24 — keeping the affections of the inner man Godward; second, a good conscience outward — man presenting becoming behaviour "in holiness of the truth." Nothing is divine that is disconnected with truth; every thing that is divine has its source in the truth, the seed of God. There is much in the world that assumes to be holiness; but if there be holiness, if there be love, these must be in the truth — there must be a new divine stamp on the affections.

In the midst of the battle our victory is to trample on the serpent, but to be trodden under foot by the lion, to have our bodies trampled on, in the street of the great city. The victory of Christ was the turning-point; till then, defeat was shame in Israel; now it is the contrary. The book of Joshua is a living book of wisdom, and wisdom is justified of her children. (v. 15.) Is it not strange that the gospel of peace should be used in the field of battle? (v. 16.) A worshipper bows his head and lets a tide of blessing flow over — this is faith. J. G. B.

Strangership and Citizenship

Strangership and Citizenship.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

Strangership and citizenship, as I may express it, have been, each of them, again and again, the character of the standing of the people of God in this world. But each of them, in its season, was. to be; simply because of God's own relationship to the world at the time. For it is not law or commandment only which makes a thing right or wrong: consistency with God is the highest rule of righteousness and holiness. The call of God is not only from Him, but to Him. He calls, not simply as One that has authority and looks for, obedience, but as One that seeks for fellowship and consistency with Himself, in the place where He is, when He calls.

Adam, at his creation, was a citizen in the earth, because God had a place in the earth. The works of His hands had been His delight and His glory. He found a place of rest in the Garden of Eden.* He could walk there; and, on account of all this, Adam's citizenship in the earth, and enjoyment of Eden as his home, was holy; it put Adam where God already was, and that is the holiness of every position.

*See Note on p. 128.

Sin, however, quickly defiled the earth, and God was thereby estranged from it. If Adam preserve his holiness, he must become a stranger with God in the world; and so he does. By listening to the story of the bruised and bruising seed of the woman (that is, the gospel of a crucified and risen victorious Christ), Adam is redeemed; and, as a sinner saved, he returns to God from the covert and distance where guilt had put him; but after that he is never seen as seeking citizenship in the earth outside the Garden of Eden. We do not find him with Cain and his family, and his worldly progeny, in the city Enoch, in the midst of its traffic and pleasures, but with Seth and that household who call upon the name of the Lord, and have no memorial in the earth but their sepulchre. For the Lord God had now no works of His hands to be His delight and glory, as once He had.

He had soon to repent that He had made man on the earth; and being a stranger in the world His hands had made, Adam is a stranger with Him; and this was again his holiness.

In the progress of the divine ways, however, judgment enters. The earth continues in its corruption for an age, and violence fills it, till God removes it by the waters of the flood, and through that judgment renews it. He then takes a place and a kingdom in it again. His fresh and pure handiwork had given Him a place in the earth at the beginning; and now, in the day of Noah, His cleansing judgments give Him a place in it a second time; and then man, elect man, at once becomes a citizen here again: Noah is made such. He is called of God to be such. He is commanded to replenish the earth (as Adam, at the beginning, had been); to order and govern it; to exercise his religious services and maintain his testimony to God in it, Government is his, and that too in company with priesthood. And this was holiness in Noah. God owned the earth as the scene of His presence again, and Noah had to use it, to order it, and to enjoy it, not only under Him, but with Him. Citizenship in it was consistency with God, and thus it was Noah's holiness.

But the apostacy after the flood — the apostacy of Gen. 11 — estranges the Lord from the earth again. It must be so, except He judge it, and purge it by judgment: for God cannot own a defiled thing left in its defilement. He can make a defiled thing His, by purifying; but if He leave it in its pollution, He must leave it Himself.

The Lord does not judge this post-diluvian apostacy as He had the former. He scatters the people, and confounds their language. But He does not clear the earth of them. He rather spreads them all abroad, so as not to leave one single clean, undefiled, separated place for Himself in it. He cannot but be a stranger in such a condition of things. And He is a stranger; and as a stranger in the earth, He calls to Abraham from heaven It was the voice of "the God of glory" that addressed itself to Abraham. The call was from heaven and to heaven; and it made Abraham a stranger with God in this world; and it bespeaks its heavenly character very earnestly, for Abraham, in obedience to it, has to come away from country, kindred, and father's house; and that, too, to a land that was only to be shown to him, but not given. He was to be a stranger in the place he was to reach, as well as to the place he left and lost. All this strongly marks the heavenliness of this call of the God of glory, and the strangership of the elect ones in the earth. It separated Abraham from what flesh and earth had for him — from what was humanly right, but what at present could not mark Divine holiness; for God had been estranged from the earth.

And thus it continues with Isaac and Jacob. Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob alike dwell in tents. This is their memorial, and this is the symbol of strangership in the earth. Isaac and Jacob, in their generations, continue to be strangers, as Abraham had been called to be one, because a state of unjudged corruption continues: and such a state, as we have said, makes the blessed God Himself a stranger. The earth must be clean, either in its original order and state as the Garden of Eden was, or it must be made clean by judgment, as in the time of Noah, or God cannot find a dwelling in it.* He may visit it with blessing for His elect; but He cannot take up with it as His dwelling-place.

The earth, however, in due time, is again to tell of God, and His presence here. The children of Abraham, no longer a family merely, as in the generations of Isaac, and Jacob, but grown into a, nation, numerous as the stars of heaven and many as the sands upon the sea-shore, shall have a land prepared for them, a clean land, where God Himself will dwell again. Accordingly, Canaan is got ready for Jehovah, the Lord, and Israel, His people. The sword of Joshua clears it, and ordinances of holiness sanctify all that is in it. It is but a narrow place, a spot like the Garden of Eden, in the midst of a surrounding creation. But it is chosen, and the Lord God can dwell there. The God of glory is not again calling from heaven as in the day of Abraham, but seats Himself in His sanctuary in the land of Israel. And there He sets His people in the midst of all that, out of which He had called Abraham Family, national, human, earthly associations are all to be there, and enjoyed there; home, country, kindred, and father's house — the very scenes and relationships from which their fathers had been separated. The cloudy pillar, as I may say, where the glory dwelt, took them right back to all the old things from which the same glory had, of old, withdrawn the patriarchs; so strongly are the divers mysteries of strangership and citizenship, in their several seasons, marked under the pleasure and under the sealing of the will of God. But we have to go beyond this.

The nation of Israel was no more true to Canaan than Adam had been true to the Garden, or Noah (and those who came after him) to the new world — the world after the flood. The earth was again corrupted under the inhabitants thereof.

The story of the Lord's long-suffering with Israel during their years of decline and backsliding, and of the many ways which His hand and His Spirit took with them, is spread before us in a great part of the Old Scriptures; and a fruitful page it is, reading out lessons of God and lessons of man, for our learning. But we are not to trace it here. But on reaching the end of it we see the nation — that is Israel. the children of Abraham — filling up their full measure, and casting out the Heir of the Vineyard from His own inheritance.

The Gentiles took their part in this: the Gentiles. with Pilate, the Jews, with Herod, were alike in this deed. (See Acts 4: 27) Nay, the world was the guilty one. The world, that was made by Him, knew Him not. It saw and hated both Christ and His Father. If He had not done the work He did, and spoken the words He did, they had not had sin; but now their sin was full. And forth from this state — this condition of perfected and universal apostacy, the God of glory has now again called from heaven and to heaven; and the Church is that elect one who, like Abraham of old, has heard the call and come out from the world — from the Gentiles and the Jews.

This gives the Church strangership in the world, all through this age; and that too on the highest of all reasons and sanctions. For now it is not merely that the earth has been soiled, and thus made unfit for the sole of the foot of the God of glory, but, in rebellion, Israel has refused her Lord; and in infidel,, atheistic blindness of heart the world has disowned its Maker. God has been personally here, in the Son of Man, and personally He has been disowned and rejected.

This exceedeth; but nothing can this exceed. Jesus is with the Father, and the Church is the honoured witness and companion of His poverty and humiliation in the world, during this age of His rejection and absence.

But, being separated from the world, the saints are surely separated from its judgments; and being separated to Christ, they are separated to His glories; they will, therefore, appear with Him in the day of His glories. He is to break the enemy like a potter's vessel; the saints are to do the same. (Ps. 2: 9; Rev. 2: 27) He is there to take His throne of peaceful glory, and of universal dominion; and they are then to sit on their thrones, in the same times of "the regeneration," and have their several authorities over the cities of the kingdom. (Matt. 20: 28)

And for these ends they will have risen and met Him. For as they are to come back with Him to the earth, in the day of His power, in judgment, so must they have gone before, to be with Him in the heavens. Is it too much to say this? We meet Him as He comes from heaven to the air; we are with Him when He returns, to the earth. (1 Thess. 4)

Our attitude is, therefore, defined for us, and very simple it is. We are the present companions of a rejected, absent, unworldly Christ. We recognize the world around us (which has seen and hated both Him and His Father, as the Lord Himself says) as morally incurable, awaiting the judgment of His coming day. We look to meet Him in the air, when the hour of His good pleasure to that end shall come; and when that is to be we know not. And we reckon upon returning with Him, first to the execution of judgment, and then to the sharing with Him, in manifestation, the glory of His dominion in the world to come, or the millennial age.

These things form and define the proper attitude of the saints of this dispensation. It is easy to apprehend this; but to realize it we need simple, energetic faith in the power of the Holy Ghost — the faith that cherishes single-heartedness to Christ, and the love for Himself which ever keeps a welcome for Him in the heart.

*NOTE. — The Editor thinks it due to truth here to explain, that Scripture intimates no dwelling or resting of God on earth till after redemption, whether in type or in reality. Hence Exodus, not Genesis, first speaks of a dwelling of God with man.

The All-Sufficiency of Grace

The All-Sufficiency of Grace.

Galatians 4: 19-31.

J. G. Bellett.

Christian Friend vol. 18, 1891, p. 101.

" . . . . Look at Adam; his faith was in the promised Seed. Was it a king he expected to arrive, or a judge, or a lawgiver? No; but his faith was in the bruised Seed of the woman, therefore he called her Eve — the mother of all living. He himself had tainted the channel of life. There is much carnal religiousness about us, or it might be exceedingly simple to understand the new life that a poor sinner finds in the grace of Jesus. Read the epistle — 'I stand in doubt of you.' Paul had sorrow. Why? The carnal eye would have thought that they had advanced in religiousness in observing 'times and days,' etc.; but not so the jealous eye of the Spirit of God in Paul (the watchman of Jesus). He reproaches the Galatians. Was not God sufficient for you? Was not the strength of His grace sufficient? Must you use a crutch to aid or encumber your glorious liberty and strength divine in adding days and months and observances? 'It is God that worketh.' Who worked with Him when all the morning stars sang together? From the first breath of life divine the work is God's. Paul saw the entrance of a legal self-righteousness — a slipping away from the simplicity that is in Christ, which consists in having our minds perfectly formed by Jesus. The serpent would beguile and draw away from simple alliance with Jesus, but the Holy Spirit is given to supply the needful strength. In the remainder of the chapter the two covenants — Sarah and Hagar — are explained. The ulterior revelations of God are always brighter. The devil brings under the covenant of the bondwoman the state of slavery, but when the seed of the grace of God is cast into the soil of a convicted conscience, God in the triumphant march of His own unaided strength by His own blessed Son finds out a remedy for all our wretchedness and sin." J. G. B.

The Temple of God and Its Worship

The Temple of God and Its Worship.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. N7 p. 21 etc.

In the two temples, that at Jerusalem in the old dispensation, and that of the Spirit in the new, we see a meaning in everything within them. Heb. 9: 8, 9 gives us notice of this touching the sanctuary, and shows the character of the service there; the veil being constantly down to forbid the access of the worshipper into the presence of God, or holy of holies, was the figure for the time then present. It exhibited the character of that dispensation which never, with the sacrifices it provided, gave the sinner confidence, or purged the conscience — never brought him near as a worshipper. We see the same significance in the New Testament temple; everything said of it has a voice which tells us of the time now present, and exhibits the character of the dispensation in which we are, as clearly as the other did. In proof of this, I would look at 1 Cor. 11, where from ver. 17 (and down to the close of 1 Cor. 14) the apostle is treating of the ordinances and worship of the house of God, or the New Testament temple. This chapter, in its latter half, assumes the saints to be in assembly or church order, and in looking at their order as detailed here, several objects strike our notice.

First, we see men and women seated together. This tells of their equal and common interest in Christ, where there is neither male nor female, as we read here, "For neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord"; for, personally considered, they have the same standing in the church of God.

Secondly, we see the man uncovered, and the woman covered. This tells us of their difference mystically considered, as we read here, "For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man" (8th and 9th verses). And these two things are true, not only of Adam and Eve, but of Christ and the church, so that in the assembly — where she is not permitted "to speak" (1 Cor. 14: 34), or when prophesying, which she may do elsewhere (Acts 21: 9) — the woman is to carry the sign of subjection (i.e. the covered head) Gen. 24: 65, and the man to appear without it, thus mystically setting forth "Christ and the church."

Thirdly, in the next place we see the Supper spread. This tells why the saints have come together, and the character of the dispensation into which the church is now brought; for it shows us the veil is gone. The blood of Jesus has rent it, and been brought in its stead. The table tells us of the Paschal Lamb and of the feast of unleavened bread upon it, and thus of the full remission of sins, and also of the exercise of self-judgment; and these are just what the church enjoys and observes till the Lord comes.

Thus these features in the assembly have all their signification. And, in this manner, the assembly of saints formed the New Testament temple of living stones, and, thus raised, is a blessed testimony to the time now present. Every object tells us of its character; we look into the assembly of saints, and see the great truths of the present age reflected as in a glass, just as in the sanctuary under the law there was a figure of the things then present.

All this is clear and simple; but in further meditation on the subject, observe that there is still more meaning in the covering of the woman in the congregation than I noticed before (1 Cor. 11: 5, 6). This power of covering on the head is primarily to be regarded as signifying that subjection which the woman owes the man, who is her head, or the subjection which the church owes her Lord. Power, or covering on the head, was the sign of that, and therefore was suitable to the woman in the congregation, because without it she thus dishonoured the man, who is her head (ver. 5).

But there is more than that, for the apostle adds, that if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn or shaven, which he then says would be a shame to her (ver. 6). What was the shame of which the shaven or shorn state of a woman's head was the confession? This must be determined by a reference to the Law, and under it we find two occasions on which the woman was shaven, or uncovered. First, when she was a suspected wife (Num. 5). Secondly, when she had lately been taken captive and was bewailing her father's house, not yet united to the Jew who had taken her in battle (Deut. 21). This shaven state of a woman thus expressed showed that she was not enjoying either the full confidence, or the full joy, of a husband.

Now the woman ought not to appear with such marks on her; for the church ought not to be seen as though she were suspected by Christ, or still felt herself a sorrowing captive. This would be her shame! But the covering on her head shows the church to be in neither of these states, but, on the contrary, happy in the affection and confidence of Christ; and this is as it should be — this is her glory.

Thus the woman covered in the assembly shows out the two things touching the church — the church's present happy honourable estate with Jesus, as well as her entire subjection to Him as her Lord — i.e. both owning Him as Lord, and enjoying the cherishing presence of Christ, which puts away the sense of captivity; while on the other hand the uncovered head would be a denial of both — a dishonour to the man, and a shame to the woman, and it would bear a false witness to angels, who are learning the deep mysteries of Christ from the church (Eph. 3; 1 Cor. 9). Christ was seen of them first (1 Tim. 3: 16). They marked and attended His whole progress from the manger to the resurrection; and now they are learning from the church and mark her ways, and if the woman in the assembly were to appear uncovered, the angels would be learning the lesson incorrectly. The shorn head of the woman would have done for the dispensation of the Law; for then the sense of captivity was not gone, the spirit of bondage was yet in the worshipper, kindredness in the flesh was not then fully forgotten; but now "we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit," as being joined to the Lord, and there is liberty and not bondage.

With this little view of the temples, let us consider the worship which might fill them. True worship, like true knowledge of God, flows from the revelation of Him, for man by wisdom knows not God. Worship, to be true, must be according to that revelation which God has made of Himself, and this I would trace a little through Scripture.

Abel was a true worshipper; his worship or offering was according to faith — i.e. according to revelation (Heb. 11). The firstlings of his flock which he offered were in view of the bruised Seed of the woman, and according to the coats of skins with which the Lord God had clothed his parents.

Noah followed Abel, and also worshipped in the faith of the woman's bruised Seed; he took his new inheritance only in virtue of blood (Gen. 8: 20); he was therefore a true worshipper — worshipping God as He had revealed Himself.

Gen. 12: 7; here we see Abraham following in their steps, a true worshipper. I might observe that there is strikingly an absence of self-will in Abraham; he believed God, and what was told him; he went out as he was commanded; he worshipped as then was revealed to him.

Isaac, precisely in the track of Abraham, worshipped the God who had appeared to him, not effecting to be wise and thus becoming a fool, but in simplicity of faith and worship, like Abraham, raising his altar to the revealed God (Gen. 26: 24, 25).

Jacob was a true worshipper. The Lord appears to him in his sorrow and degradation, in the misery to which his own sin had reduced him, thus revealing Himself as the One in whom mercy rejoiceth against judgment; and he at once owns God as thus revealed to him, and this God of Bethel was his God to the end (Gen. 48: 15, 16). Here was enlarged revelation of God, and worship following such revelation, and that is true worship.

The nation of Israel was to be a worshipper. God had revealed Himself to Israel in a varied way — He had given them the law of righteousness, and also shadows of good things to come. By the one He had multiplied transgressions, and the other provided the remedy: and the worship of Israel was according to this. There was an extreme sensitiveness to sin, with burdens to allay it, which they were not able to bear, and thus the spirit of bondage and fear was gendered. Israel had thus become increasingly acquainted with the good and evil, and their worship was accordingly. The tabernacle or temple where all the worship went on as the established worship might still be set aside, because it was not the perfect thing, and God might show out the better if He pleased in spite of it; and so He did on various occasions. Witness Gideon, Manoah, and David.

Gideon worshipped according to a new revelation of God in spite of Shiloh and the tabernacle; his rock became the ordered place, or the anointed altar, just because of this revelation and command of God (Judges 6: 14-26). Manoah turns what he had supposed a repast into a sacrifice, because the Lord had revealed His wish that it should be so (Judges 13: 15, 19). David at the bidding of the Lord turns from the ordained or consecrated altar to another, which was in the unclean inheritance of a Gentile, where, however, as at Bethel of old, mercy had rejoiced against judgment, and where accordingly God had built Himself another house. "This is the house of the Lord God," says David (1 Chr. 22). Thus, then, these three instances were cases of true worship, though manifestly a departure from God's own established worship.

The healed leper was a true worshipper, though in like manner he departed from the established, the divinely established, order, just because without a command he apprehended God in a new revelation of Himself (Luke 17: 11-19). The healing had a voice to the ear of faith, for it was only the God of Israel who could heal a leper (2 Kings 5: 7). This was more excellent even than the same kind of faith in Gideon, Manoah, or David.

II.

The church of God is a true worshipper on exactly the same grounds, worshipping according to God's enlarged revelation of Himself. The true worshippers now are those whom the Father in His grace has sought and found, and their worship proceeds on this — that the Son has revealed the Father to them, and they have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. This is still, like all the other cases of worship in truth, because of God's revelation of Himself.

But there is something beyond this in the present worship of the church; it is "in spirit and truth" (John 4: 21-24), as well as "by the Spirit of God" (Phil. 3: 7), because the Holy Ghost has been given us that we may so worship, enabling the saints to call God "Father" and Jesus Christ "Lord." There is now communicated power, as well as revelation for the ends of worship. The worshippers are sons, and also priests (Gal. 4: 6; Rev. 1: 6); having access with filial confidence they are in the holy place — the brazen altar (the remembrance of sin) behind them, and the fulness of God disclosed, and all that must be for blessing. Everything is told to the worshippers now, for the second veil is rent before them, and they see their Father on the mercy-seat, on the throne of the sanctuary; the blood of the Son has introduced them there, and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost makes them to worship in a way worthy of such a sanctuary; and the Father seeking such to worship Him does not rest on anything short of this, which thus the confidence and love and honour of children give Him. Such is worship, I judge, "in spirit and truth," for thus it is where it is according to revelation, and in the grace of the Holy Spirit.

But its materials or its form may be very different, as we may further notice; for, properly and simply understood, it is rendering glory to God in the sanctuary, according to His own revelation of Himself. Many things may gather around it or accompany it, but which are not so properly and simply worship. Abel worshipped when he laid his lamb on the altar, though that was very simple; but it was enough, for it was meeting God in the appointed way, and owning His glory.

So did Abraham worship when he raised an altar to God, who appeared to him (Gen. 12: 8). Israel worshipped when they bowed the head at God's revelation by Moses (Ex. 4: 30, 31; 12: 27); as Moses did at another revelation (Ex. 34: 8). So David worshipped (2 Sam. 12: 20). And so Solomon's congregation (2 Chr. 7: 3) and Jehoshaphat's (2 Chr. 20: 18) worshipped; and though it be not so called, yet Jacob's anointing the pillar at Bethel was worship, because it was owning God according to His revelation; and so David's "sitting before the Lord" was worship, I judge, on the same principle (2 Sam. 7). Job worshipped when he fell down in subjection to God's dealings with him. Eliezer worshipped when he bowed his head, for in that act he owned the divine goodness to him (Gen. 24: 26, 52). The nation of Israel worshipped when they presented their basket of first-fruits, for their basket told God of His own gracious ways — set forth His praises in the sanctuary (Deut. 26). The appearing of the males at the three annual feasts in "the city of the great King" was worship, for such feasts set forth God's own gracious acts and ways, and that is worship. What were all these acts but the thankful acknowledgment of God, according to what He had either done or spoken, and the acceptance of His mercy accordingly?

It appears to me that the congregation of the Lord should enter the sanctuary of the Lord now with like worship — with the purpose of showing forth God's praise — the virtues or praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light — the praises which He has earned for Himself by His own blessed acts and revelations — and this is done in breaking of bread with thanksgiving, according to His ordinance. That is the service which sets forth what God has done, declaring that He has provided a remedy for sin. It is a remembrance, not of sins, like the legal sacrifices (Heb. 10: 3), but a remembrance of "Me," says Jesus, and consequently of sins put away. Thus it is, an act of worship, or a giving to God His own proper glory — the glory of His acts and revelations. To pray about the forgiveness of sins would be discord with the table; it would be (quite unintentionally, it might be) a reproach upon the Sacrifice of the Son of God; it would be building again the things that Christ had destroyed; and, in the language and sense of Gal. 2, making Him the minister of sin — making His blood, like the blood of bulls and goats, only the remembrance of sins, and not the remitter of sins.

But to surround the table with thanksgiving, and wait on the feast with praise for redemption, this would be honouring the work of the Lamb of God which the feast sets forth, and, accordingly, it is always as thus accompanied that Scripture presents it to us. Jesus, in taking the bread and the cup, "gave thanks" (Matt. 26, Mark 14, Luke 22). He did nothing else. The words blessing and giving thanks are, to all moral intent, used in the same sense; and, in the like mind, the apostle calls it "the cup of blessing which we bless," because by that cup, or by that death and blood-shedding of Jesus which it sets forth, He has richly entitled Himself to praise. It may be accompanied with confession of sin, for such confession would not be in discordance with this supper. But still we do not find that alluded to in any passages which refer to the Supper; by them it takes the simple form of being a Eucharistic feast, or a season of thanksgiving for the remission of sins. It says (at least the table has this voice in it) — "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts: let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." Yet, surely, the service of self-judging and self-examination may well precede this feast.

In due order the covered women and the uncovered men appear before the Lord, and they break bread (1 Cor. 11). This is taking the place the Lord has called them to, and this, therefore, publishes His name and praise, and that is giving Him the glory He has so blessedly earned; so to speak, it is like Israel presenting their basket. It is like bowing the head at the revelation of His mercy.

The service is Eucharistic. It is a feast upon a sacrifice. It is the Father's house opened upon the prodigal's return. And this is our proper worship, for it is "in truth," according to the revelation, according to that perfect provision which our God has made for our sins in the gift and sufferings of Jesus.

Accordingly, when the first disciples came together, it was to this act of worship or service (Acts 20: 7; 1 Cor. 10, 11). Other things may gather round it or accompany it, but this was their worship; this brought them to the sanctuary — this was their business there. I find in Deut. 26 that other things might accompany the worship, for after Moses directs them as to their basket, he tells them about confession and prayer. So Moses prayed after his worship in Ex. 34: So the elders ate and drank in God's presence, which was properly their communion or worship. But Moses had previously spoken to them about the covenant (Ex. 24), as in Acts 20 the disciples came together to "break bread," but Paul addressed a long discourse to them; as also, at the first institution of the supper, the Lord gathered His disciples purposely for the supper, but He teaches them about other things also, and ere they separate they sing a hymn; and most significantly is the same thing conveyed to us in 1 Cor. 11 and 14, where the house of God, or place of present worship, is widely opened to us.

For there the apostle shows the disciples mystically, and duly covered and uncovered, in the worship, a service of breaking of bread. He clearly tells us it was for that end they had met together. But then he considers "spirituals" (1 Cor. 12: 1). He considers what may accompany worship — the calling upon Jesus, or the ministry of the word in the life and power of the Holy Ghost given to the saints — and thus he unfolds the sanctuary and its actions and furniture, showing what the worship itself was, and then what might duly attend upon it. In 1 Tim. 2 we get directions as to the further service of the saints in the assembly — that prayer and intercession, as wide and free as the grace that had rescued themselves, should mark their union and fill God's living temple. But still this intercession is not simply and properly worship. Their worship was still the breaking of bread, because that was the act which set forth God's praise, or gave Him the glory of His present acts and dealings with them and for them, and that was what brought them together. The giving of alms also duly accompanied the worship, as prayer and ministry of the word may; but, in like manner, it is simply an accompaniment, like the releasing of the prisoner at the feast.

The two things are presented distinctly in Abraham's history. He is a worshipper at his altar. But then we hear no supplication addressed to God by him. He is a suppliant about Sodom, and there we see no altar (Gen. 18: 23). This is very plain, clearly defining the character of worship, and showing that the breaking of bread is clearly the service of the sanctuary now, whatever else may enter with it. For God is to be worshipped according to Himself (John 4), and the taking of anything as authority in religion but what is from Him mutilated worship, as the Lord told the Jews in Matt. 15 (of which principle Deut. 12 is a further witness.)* Clearly man is not to determine his own ways as a worshipper. Willingness in worship is right; wilfulness destroys it all. Of their own voluntary will they brought their offerings (Lev. 1: 3; 7: 16); but this was to be done as and where the lord willed. So with us; we are to worship "in spirit," that is most true — and in the grace and liberty of the Holy Spirit which is given to us; but we are to worship "in truth" also, according to God's revelation of Himself and of His worship. This I have already spoken of. The maintenance of groves and high places in Israel was always the witness that the people had not duly prepared their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel, the only true God, who had set His name at Jerusalem (2 Chr. 14: 3; 2 Chr. 15: 17; 2 Chr. 17: 6; 2 Chr. 19: 3; 2 Chr. 20: 33).

*And a striking Scripture it is. Here the Lord of Israel tells Moses that He would Himself choose a place to record His name, and to that place alone the people were to bring their offerings, and not only to the place chosen by the Lord, but according to the manner prescribed by Him, they were to worship. They were not to imitate the worship of the nations, but to render their worship according to God's own word, or "in truth" (ver. 29-32).

On the subject of worship, I would still add that joy and a spirit of thankfulness and liberty have characterised it at all times. Adam's enjoyment of the garden and its fruits was worship. Israel's presentation of the basket and their keeping of the feasts was worship, and what gladness and thanksgiving suited such occasions! The saints surrounding the table of the Lord is worship now; and the spirit of filial confidence, of thanksgiving and of liberty, should fill them. All these acts of worship at different times were marked by joy in different orders, for surely a God of love is a God of joy. J. G. B.

"That Fox."

"That Fox."

Luke 13: 32.

J. G. Bellett.

from Miscellaneous Papers

(R. L. Allan)

The Herodians sought to entangle Jesus, leading Him to commit Himself to the power of the state, then in the hand of the Romans, whose creature Herod, the patron of their party, was. They did this stealthily. They affected to know Him as One that regarded not the person of man, and they put a question to Him about which conscience might be uneasy, the conscience of a Jew, as though they craved instruction and guidance. (See Matt. 22)

This was hypocrisy; and so the Lord calls it.

The question was such as might easily lead to a perplexity. "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?"

There was great confusion in the land at that, time; Caesar's power was in the place and among the people that belonged to God. The question intimated that, and that was confusion. That was not as it ought to have been, or as it would have been, had God's people been true to Him.

Jesus, however, did not reason upon this confusion, or contend with it; He taught, rather, that it was to be yielded to by the people; for Israel's duty, taught them of old by His Spirit in their prophets, and now by His lips in the midst of them, in a day of bondage or captivity, is to accept the punishment of their sins; and if this present confusion in the land, Caesar's power in God's place, was, as it must have been, the fruit of their sin, they must now accept that state as their punishment, bow to it, and not resist it, or struggle with it. He only guards the application of this principle by a rehearsing of God's claims also. "Render unto Caesar," says the Lord, "the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's."

This reminds me of Num. 14. If Israel have brought forty years' pilgrimage upon themselves, it is not for them to seek to have it otherwise by a desperate effort on their own behalf, or a struggle to, free themselves, of the wages or penalty of their transgression. Let them rather bow their heads, and begin their pilgrimage humbled, and not go up the hill and seek to force the enemy.

Thus, on this occasion of the Herodians in Matt. 22, the Lord answers them, and the words of His lips now are in beautiful concord with the words of His Spirit in His prophets of old.

But here let me add, Jesus did not fear Herod. His enemies thought that He must either speak or act unworthy of Himself, by fearing Herod, or else commit Himself to Herod's power by defying him. But He does neither the one nor the other. The snare is broken, as it had been in John 8. There, Jesus neither impugned the Law nor condemned the guilty. The snare was broken.

But Jesus, again I say, did not fear Herod. His words in Luke 13 let us know this, if we need a witness. Then He calls him "a fox." a fitting title for him, as we read in Lam. 5: 18. "Because of the mountain of Zion which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it." Herod was one who had taken advantage of Zion's sorrow. Israel was dethroned. Her enemies had got the upper hand; and Herod, the creature of the enemy, the ally and flatterer of Caesar, had made his gains by her misery. He was walking upon the mountain, or in the high places, of Zion, because of her desolations. He had played the fox, instead of mourning over the wastes of Israel: he had made his own gain out of their poverty.

The Lord did not fear him. He exposes him in the due time and place. But all with Him was beautiful in its season. He will own Caesar's Place in the land, and Herod's as under Caesar, in the day of Matt. 22; but if threatened, as by Herod's name or power in Luke 13, He can and will let it be known, that He did not fear him.

But further as to Herod. He was at that moment also playing the fox; for, according to this same scripture, Luke 8, Jesus as the Heir would have gathered Israel; and Herod, seeking the death of such an One, may surely and rightly be named a fox.

Jesus was the feeder of the flock of slaughter; Herod a possessor, a slayer, a salesmaster, a shepherd that did not pity — in the language of another prophet, who thus strikingly, under the Holy Ghost, anticipated these days of Jesus and of Herod. (See Zech. 11: 4, 5)

The Threshing Floor of Ornan the Jebusite

The Threshing Floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

1 Chronicles 21.

J. G. Bellett.

from  Musings on Scripture, Volume 1.

It is an affecting and solemn truth presented to us by scripture, to which we desire that our thoughts may ever be fully subject, that our God has, through our transgression, been separated from His due place, as over the work of His own hands; that this world, which is all His handy work, has acknowledged another god and prince. (John 14: 13; 1 Cor. 4: 4) Since the day when the Lord God walked with Adam in paradise, He has had no abiding place* among us. He has visited the earth in diverse manners, to bring mercies to His chosen in the midst of it, but when His errand of love has been finished, He has, as is said, "gone His way" again. (Gen. 18: 33) He would, it is true, have found a place among His chosen Israel, but He was even by them too speedily disowned, and His tarrying there proved to be but that of a way-faring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night. (Jer. 14: 8) "The ox knoweth his owner," said the God of Israel by His prophet, "and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." (Isa. 1: 3)

*[God dwelt in the holiest, only after redemption, in figure. Now that redemption is real and eternal by Christ, He dwells in us by His Spirit for ever. ED.]

But the Lord's title to the earth of course stands unimpeachable; "the cattle on a thousand hills" are His, "the earth, and the fulness thereof;" and accordingly in one way or another, He has been making continual claim to it in the face of the usurper, so as to express His purpose of finally taking it into full possession again. This indeed was so clearly intimated by the first promise, that the whole creation is represented as hoping and waiting for it. (Gen. 3: 15; Rom. 8: 19-21) And so in the day of the kingdom of our God, these hopes of the creation shall not be ashamed, for the "heavens shall then rejoice, and the earth be glad, the sea and the fulness thereof; the field shall then be joyful and all that is therein: the floods, and the hills, and the trees of the wood shall rejoice before the Lord."

By tracing for a while the dealings of the Lord with this world of ours, we may discern the ways in which He has been pleased, since the day when man sold himself and his inheritance into the hand of a strange lord, thus to claim the earth as His. When the giants of old had finished the antediluvian apostacy, corrupting the earth and filling it with violence, doing with it as if it were their own, the Lord asserted His right by judging that generation as oppressors and wrong-doers. (Gen. 6: 1-13)

Then in the new world He witnessed His title to the earth by making man the tenant of it under Himself, delivering it into the hand of Noah, under express condition imposed according to His own good pleasure. (Gen. 9: 1-7) And again, when these children of men, doing the deeds of their fathers, affected independency of God their rightful Lord, as they did in the matter of Babel, He again asserted His right in the way of judgment, scattering the confederates over the face of the earth. (Gen. 11: 1-9)

But the Lord in His fruitful sovereign wisdom had now another mode of continuing His claim to the earth. This scattering of the nations from Babel He so orders as to have respect to His setting up one of them as the future witness of His name and rights. (Deut. 32: 8, 9) And in the mean time He separates the father of this nation to Himself (Gen. 12: 1), making him also personally the witness of the same truth — that let the peoples imagine what vain things they might, Jehovah, and He alone, was "possessor of heaven and earth." (Gen. 14: 18-22)

Accordingly then, when in due course of providence Abraham's nation was manifested, the Lord who had chosen them to be His witnesses, puts them into possession of a portion of the earth, to hold it under Him their Lord; thus showing that He, who took what portion He pleased, had title to the whole; as He says, "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine." (Ex. 19: 5) And Israel thus established as God's people should have continued in the midst of, but separated formally from, the nations, reflecting the light of God's glory as King of all the earth. But again and again they revolted, and rejected Jehovah Christ from being King over them. The nation first (1 Sam. 8: 7), then the house of David (Isa. 8: 13, Jer. 21: 12), give up their testimony to God; and at length the wicked husbandmen cast the heir himself out of the vineyard, and slew, him. (Matt. 21: 39)*

*I may observe that Israel was also taught by the ordinance of tithes, that they held their land as of the Lord; for it was as a rent payable by a tenant. Rabbi Bechai accordingly says on Deut. 14: 23, "If thou pay the tithe, then it is thy corn; if not, it is mine" (i.e., the Lord's); as it is said also in Hosea, "therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my vine in the season thereof." (Hosea 2: 9). (See Jenning's Jewish Antiquities, p. 206.)

Abraham's seed thus refused to do the works of Abraham, and then Abraham's God abandoned their land, leaving the boar out of the wood to waste it, and the wild beast of the field to devour it. But the Lord has had pity for His holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, and has called forth another witness to the glory of it. By the voice of heralds He is publishing "Jesus and the resurrection," opening the heavenly places and the Father's house to all believers, and letting all men know, that the kingdoms of the world are to become His, and that all things are to be put under His feet again. (Heb. 2: 8; Rev. 11: 15)

But how is the kingdom of the world to become the Lord's? And how is His presence to be preserved among us? We can prepare Him no habitation or dominion; for we have been found unable even to retain that which in His love He once committed to us. The Lord then must, and so He will, prepare Himself a place over and among the children of men, so as to secure His presence and authority (O blessed expectation) from ever being clouded or denied again.

When the Lord took Israel of old, as we have seen, to be His peculiar people, of course He prepared Himself a place among them — the tabernacle first, and then the temple. The tabernacle was but a moveable pavilion; there Jehovah dwelt as between curtains, and walked as in a tent, refusing with in. finite grace to enter into His rest while His Israel sojourned from one nation to another people. (2 Sam. 7: 5-8) But the temple was fixed; for when Israel was brought into the land of their covenant, and all their enemies had been reduced, then the Lord would enter into rest among them. In their affliction having been afflicted, He would now rejoice in their joy (Isa. 63: 9); and He, whom the heaven cannot contain, seated Himself in the midst of His chosen nation.

But where was the honoured spot? Who of us that clings with all desire (as, if we be saints, we at least should) to the hope of God's restored presence and kingdom in this world, that would not but know something of it? I speak not of what travellers have told us of it, but how the oracles of God mark it out. And from them we learn this simple story of it, that it had been the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite; and it was the place where the angel of God stayed his destructive course through the city of Jerusalem, whither he had been summoned by the sin of the king and the people. It was this spot which became the place of the temple, and most fitly so, as we shall see, if we can a little more narrowly survey the ground, as it is spread out before us by the Spirit of God in 1 Chr. 21: 1-6.

"And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. And David said unto Joab and the elders of the people, Go number Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, and bring the number of them to me that I may know it. And Joab answered, The Lord make this people an hundred times so many more than they be; but my Lord the king, are they not all my Lord's servants? Why then doth my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? Nevertheless the king's hand prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. And Joab gave the sum of the number unto David; and all they of Israel were a thousand thousand, and a hundred thousand men, that drew sword; and Judah was four hundred threescore, and ten thousand men, that drew sword. But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them, for the king's word was abominable to Joab."

At the time when this scene opens, the sword of David and of Israel had been victorious over all their enemies. The Philistines had been subdued — Moab had brought gifts — garrisons were put in Damascus; and the Syrians, as also the Edomites, had become David's servants. With all promised blessings the house of God's servant had been blest, and nought of the goodness of which the Lord had spoken to him had failed. "The fame of David went out into all lands, and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations."

But Satan, we here read, too soon serves himself of all this; and Israel proves again, that man, utterly without strength, is unable even to hold a blessing. The gifts with which their gracious Lord had thus endowed Israel, and which had been ordained for their comfort and His praise, became, through the craft and subtlety of the devil, an occasion to them of self-congratulation and pride, as to Adam of old. (Gen. 3: 1-8) For David's heart in all this was moved by the old lie — "ye shall be as gods." Any thing for poor fallen man but the living God! "Nay, but we will have a king to reign over us," said Israel to Samuel of old, rejecting Jehovah Christ, "that we also may be like all the nations." (1 Sam. 8: 19, 29) But the Lord will not give His glory to another: none have ever forsaken Him and prospered, as it is written, — "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord." (Isa. 31: 1) "The Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose." (Isa. 30: 7), David here, like Hezekiah afterwards, in the pride of his heart, would exhibit his magnificence, would survey his resources.

The infatuation in which David was sunk is marked by the fact of Joab expostulating with him; for (though a man of blood and eminently one of the children of this world, all his policy bespeaks him, yet wiser far in his generation, looking not to the ungodliness so much is to the impolicy of this purposed wickedness of the king) Joab at once discovers, that which his master refuses to see.

The whole system of Israel, by this national transgression, was now defiled and tainted, and ripe for severity or judgment. This pride was the giving up of God, and God would have been dealing righteously had He at once laid Israel aside, as He did Adam in such a case, — "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

1 Chr. 21: 7-14. "And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel. And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing: but now I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done foolishly. And the Lord spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait; let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men."

For nine long months the pride of the king's heart deceived him (2 Sam. 24: 8); as alas! lust had before dimmed his eye for the same time. He had too long walked in the ways of his heart and in the sight of his eyes; but after his hardness and impenitency was but treasuring up unto himself wrath against the day of the righteous judgment of God now about to be revealed. Sinners should be stopped in their course by the remembrance that God, though He suffers long, "has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness."

But David, as a child of God, might be tempted, overtaken in a fault, and thus brought to shame and grief, but could not be left impenitent (Luke 22: 32). And so Israel as God's nation could not be consumed, because God's gifts and calling are without repentance (Rom. 11: 29), because His compassion towards them could not fail (Lam. 3: 22). Their transgressions were to be visited with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes, but the divine loving-kindness was not to be utterly taken from David and his nation (Ps. 89: 33). Correction is ever in covenant love. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth, and therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos. 3: 2). To walk comfortably and without interruption as in an even path, we must walk watchfully as with the Lord. Had David walked in his integrity, and humbly with his God, he would have been spared this discipline; but now "he must bear the rod." And he is required to choose the rod; by this, much grace might be exercised in his soul; he would by this be brought to consider well the fruit of his transgressions, and thus be more humbled and broken in spirit, and he would also have occasion to encourage himself afresh in the Lord who was slaying him, as we find he did.

But corrected he must be, and that too, just in the place of his transgression; having boasted of his thousands, his thousands must be diminished. God would now number to the sword whom David had numbered to his pride. And so the day of the Lord is to be upon every one that is proud and lifted up (Isa. 2: 12).

1 Chr. 21: 15. "And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite."

In this verse we have the threshing-floor of Ornan first brought within view, a mean spot in itself, but destined of the Lord to be the joy of the whole earth; the place of the glory, the rest of God and His Israel. It presents itself to us at once, as the witness of that blessed precious truth, which is the sure ground of all our hopes, that with our God "mercy rejoiceth against judgment" (James 2: 13). The whole system of Israel had, as we have observed, exposed itself to the severity or displacing judgment of the Lord; He might have broken it at once as a vessel wherein was no pleasure; He might have taken away His vineyard from His unthankful and wicked husbandmen. But "mercy rejoiceth against judgment" in the bosom of their God. He repents Him of the evil with which His people "because of their transgressions and because of their iniquity were now afflicted;" and He commands the destroying angel to stay His hand by this threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Here the same mercy displays itself as that which shone out on ruined condemned Adam in the garden. He had there no plea to plead with the Lord: all that remained for him was to fly and be concealed, if that were possible, when in the bosom of the Lord mercy rises over judgment; and He decrees that "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head" (Gen. 3: 15). Often do the scriptures, as here, present our faithful God and Father, opening as it were His own heart, and showing His thoughts to His people how kind they are; as He, says within Himself concerning the husbandmen of His vineyard, "what shall I do? I will solid my beloved son" (see also Jer. 3: 19). Oh! that we may drink at this fountain of Israel, the love of the Father — the spring-head of all the healing waters that visit us.

1 Chr. 21: 16-17. "And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces; and David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be on me and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued."

David as yet was not given to read the secrets of his God and Saviour: the grace that was rejoicing in the bosom of his covenant God over him, was not as yet opened to him; all that he saw was the fearful agent of death and ruin hanging over his city and people. And Oh! how often an afflicted soul is thus reduced, how often does the eye fix itself on the cloud that darkens all around, without a single glimpse of the bright and peaceful heavens that lie beyond it, not knowing or refusing to know

"The clouds they so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings on their head."

1 Chr. 21: 18. "Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

"If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1: 9). The relief for David in this dark hour is announced by the angel of destruction. The eater himself yields meat, the strong man sweetness; the law itself prophesied of Jesus who was to displace it, as here the altar was to displace the angel who directed it.

An altar needs a priest or an accepted worshipper the Lord would not have directed the one, if he had not provided the other. "The Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering" (Gen. 4: 4). His person was first accepted, and then His sacrifice; and here the Lord's readiness to receive an offering tt the hand of David was a pledge that David himself, through mercy rejoicing against judgment, had been received, and his iniquity put away. If the Lord had been pleased to kill him, he would not have received a burnt-offering at his hand (Mal. 1: 10-13).

1 Chr. 21: 19-26. "And David went up at the saying of Gad which he spake in the name of the Lord. And Ornan turned back and saw the angel: and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat, and as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out of the threshing-floor; and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshing-floor, that I may build an altar therein unto the Lord; thou shalt grant it me for the full price, that the plague may be stayed from the people; and Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee and let my Lord the king do that which is good in his eyes; lo, I give thee the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meals offering: I give it all. And king David said, Nay but I will verily buy it for the full price; for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight: and David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the name of the Lord; and He answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering."

These verses present to us David's thankful believing acceptance of the mercy revealed to him. He received not the grace of God in vain. He tt once went up at the saying of the prophet, while Ornan and his sons hid themselves from the angel. Here we may observe, that while no flesh can stand naked, as in its own resources, before the Lord, yet that sinners may come fully up to His heavenly presence in the power of simply believing in His grace. Ornan and David here illustrate this. Ornan had not the grace of the Lord revealed to him, he knew nothing of the altar that was to be set up in his threshing-floor and therefore — as nakedly a creature in the sight of God, like Adam before in such a case — he hid himself. But David knew the remedy which mercy rejoicing against judgment had provided, and therefore he dares to stand, though shamed and humbled; without distraction he fulfils his appointed service, he purchases the threshing-floor, prepares the altar, offers his offering, and calls upon the Lord. The sword still unsheathed has no alarms for him now; believing, he is not ashamed or confounded; he stands to see God's salvation; his soul is brought simply to be a receiver of grace which God Himself brings nigh to him. Hence we see, in all his action, no disturbance or motion of the flesh; but all is the assurance and quietness of faith resting in the word of the Lord. And the Lord gives him his answer before he calls, and hears him while he is yet speaking (Isa. 65: 24).

1 Chr. 21: 27. "And the Lord commanded the angel, and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof."

The reconciliation was complete; being justified by faith, there was peace for David with God. As the accusings of the adversary, the demands of the law, the complaints and howlings of conscience, are all and for ever silenced by the voice of the blood of sprinkling, which tells us that with our God "mercy rejoiceth against judgment;" so, as soon as David had trusted in this grace, as soon as he had built his altar in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, where mercy had thus rejoiced, the angel of destruction puts up his sword again into the sheath thereof, at the commandment of the Lord.

1 Chr. 21: 28-30. "At that time when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. For the tabernacle of the Lord which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt-offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord."

David was given grace to interpret the writing on the Jebusite's floor. That mystic sacred plan had brightly reflected the glory of forgiving love; there he had seen that with his God "mercy rejoiceth against judgment" — the oft repeated but ever sweet and blessed truth. Close therefore by this floor he keeps. The corn which his faith had trodden down there was the finest wheat, the very fat of the kidneys of wheat; and, having tasted it, he dared not to forsake his own mercy; having fed at an altar whereon had been spread for him the dainties of a Father's love, he could not return to serve the tabernacle (Heb. 13: 10). He had not feared to prepare his altar in the angel's presence, but he does fear now to return by the way of the angel's sword. "This is the house of the Lord God," said he of Ornan's floor, "and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel" (1 Chr. 22: 1). His heart, by the Spirit who over witnesses to grace, was knit to the spot; and he proceeds at once to make preparation to link the name of the God of Israel inseparably with it also. What Moses had given them should be no more remembered or sought unto: in grace the system should be set and confirmed; and Israel and their God should meet for ever where mercy had rejoiced against judgment.

Here, with David we also meditate for awhile, and trace our interest in all this precious truth. Our souls, if we are saints of God, will breathe, "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared" or worshipped. (Ps. 130: 3. 4) All service of the name of our God comes of this; and our thankful acceptance of forgiveness, sealed as it is to all who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, is our entrance into His temple, our assumption of that character in which alone we can do service in the heavenly temple, that is, of pardoned sinners. We are to know no affection at variance with such a character. None else gives full glory to God. We stand in presence of a mercy-seat, before a throne of largest richest grace, and yet of brightest untainted righteousness, because of blood in which God smells a savour of rest is on it, through which He can be just, and yet lot mercy rejoice against judgment (Gen. 8: 21; Rom. 3: 26; Eph. 5: 2).* "The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb" are the temple in our heavens." ["Salvation to our God" is the burthen of worship by and by; "blessing, and honour, and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever," will "every creature" say in that day.]

*As David would stand only by Ornan's floor where mercy had visited him, so we abide only by the wounded side of Christ, which our sin, like the soldier's spear, had opened, but out of which mercy has brought forth blood and water to cleanse the sins away.

And as mercy through the Lord our righteousness has thus "raised us up, and made us sit in heavenly places" (Eph. 2: 6), so in the day when "all Israel shall be saved mercy shall in like manner rejoice in the lower parts of the earth. As the church is now set in grace, so will the people then be. That covenant, and that alone, which takes away sin through the Deliverer, shall establish them as it now establishes the saints; "for all are included in unbelief, that God may have mercy upon all" (Rom. 11: 26-32). Exodus 32 exhibits this truth, and most interestingly presents Israel as drawn forth, from their standing under Mount Sinai, to take their stand in the last days in and under Christ. And their last tenure of the land by grace will be the accomplishment of the promises made of old to their father Abraham; for the land and its accompanying blessings were given to him and to his seed, not as through the works of the law, but by promise or grace. The. closing scenes of that lovely portion of the divine word give us the same truth in mystery. Moses veiled typifies Israel as they are now, and the flesh under law, or in blindness of heart (Isa. 6: 10). Moses unveiled typifies Israel as they shall be; (Rom. 11: 27; 2 Cor. 3: 16) and when the heart of the Jewish people shall thus "turn to the Lord," and the veil shall be taken away, this turning of Israel to Jesus shall be followed by the unveiling of the nations, or the life of the world (Isa. 27: 6; Rom. 11: 15).

This in the end shall all be established by grace, not only the children of the resurrection in the Father's house in the heavens, but Israel and the nations, "from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same," on earth.

Mercy shall be built up for ever" (Ps. 89: 2). With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee (Zion), saith the Lord thy redeemer"; and then shall Zion's children be many, and her seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and the redeemer of Israel shall be called the God of the whole earth (Isa. 54: 5-8). The Gentiles shall be embraced in the same mercy, for it is written, "In thee shall all nations be blessed;" and it is written again, "Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people" (Rom. 15: 10). Thus shall the whole earth be the extended floor of Oman the Jebusite, and be the altar and dwelling place of Him with whom mercy has rejoiced against judgment. Thus shall our God show the rich fulness of His wisdom, providing a way whereby He can be just and the justifier of Him that believeth in Jesus, — whereby He can preserve the righteousness of His throne in all its brightest glory, and yet allow mercy to rejoice against judgment, seating Himself in the earth as in His temple and kingdom. Mercy with righteousness, peace with truth, shall rear that temple, and uphold the kingdom; His shall all things be, not only by title, by creation, but by purchase, — "His" "peculiar treasure," His "purchased possession." Thus will the Lord fully repossess Himself of the world, and walk again among the children of men; the saints, who have acknowledged Him while absent, shall be acknowledged in His glory; "the righteous shall see it, and all iniquity shall stop her mouth" (Ps. 107: 42).

The Trial of Jealousy

The Trial of Jealousy.

Numbers 5.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 18 p. 1.

"His blood be upon us and upon our children," said the Jews of their betrayed and crucified King. And so it is with them unto this day. Their land, which should have been the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, has become an Aceldama — a field of blood; and as they themselves loved cursing, so has it come upon them.

The Lord in His doctrine determined this — that we are the children of Him Whose works we do, and Whose ways we imitate (John 8). Hence it is manifest that, in the judgment of God, Israel at this day are not the children of Abraham (for they have not done the works of Abraham) but the seed of Judas, for they did his work, being one with him of old in the betraying of Jesus, and still in the disowning and rejection of Jesus (see Acts 1: 16, Acts 7: 52, 1 Thess, 2: 15). But Psalm 109 leads us directly to this mystery. There the rejected Messiah first complains of His adversary, and Judas, we know, is intended (Ps. 109: 8, and Acts 1: 20). But afterwards He speaks of His adversaries (ver. 20) calling for judgment on them as the children of His adversary; and the Jews, we may also know, are intended. For surely it could not have been the natural seed of Judas, the adversary (even if he had any), but rather mystically. And his mystical seed, as we have seen, are the Jews in their unbelief; for they it was who joined with him in his deed, and still in spirit imitate his evil way. Consequently the various judgments invoked in that Psalm, upon the children of the adversary, may be seen lying on the Jews to this day. They it was who persecuted the poor and needy man (v. 16); and they have their reward. They it was who delighted not in blessing (ver. 17), refusing to say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord;" and blessing is therefore far from them. They it was who "loved cursing," saying of Jesus, "Crucify Him, crucify Him;" so has curse come upon them: a curse and an astonishment, and a byword are they made, through all the nations of the earth unto this day.

But in the course of the holy complaint and invocation of vengeance by the disowned rejected King of the Jews, set forth in that Psalm, I may observe, that He makes reference to the ordinance of the "Trial of Jealousy" (see Psalm 109: 14-18, and Num. 5: 23-27); and therefore as to that ordinance I would speak more particularly.

This ordinance was for the discovering of unconfessed infidelity. A suspected wife was set by the high priest in the presence of God as the Searcher of hearts. Her head was uncovered, in token that on the present occasion she knew of no subjection to any but to the Lord; and therefore she removed the covering from her head, for that covering was the sign of subjection to her husband (1 Cor. 11: 3). The priest then put into her hand "the offering of jealousy." This was a meat-offering prepared by her husband, in a manner suitable to her approach to God, and which the priest afterwards took from her hand, and waved before the Lord, offering the memorial of it on the altar; by which action was signified, on both the husband's and the wife's behalf, the committal of this matter to God. Then holding in his hand a vessel containing holy water or water taken from the brazen laver mingled with dust (the sign of curse or fruit of sin; Gen. 3: 19), the priest solemnly abjured the woman, and read to her the curses that would come upon her if she were guilty. To this, if she pleased to stand the trial after all this warning, she said, "Amen, Amen;" and then the priest wrote the curses in a book, blotted them with some of the bitter water, and gave the rest of it to the woman to drink. The trial was then made. If she had been unfaithful, the water would enter into her and become bitter; her belly would swell, and her thigh rot; and she would be made a curse among the people. But if her husband's suspicions had wronged her, none of these things would happen to her. For the curses in the book would all be blotted out, so as to be legible no more; and thus, being freed and avenged, she would receive strength of the Lord to conceive seed.

Now in the Psalm 109, the Lord appears as one Who had brought up Israel to this trial, and by it found her guilty. He was entitled so to bring her up for this trial, for He had of old married her (Jer. 31: 32), of old had spread His skirt over Jerusalem (Ezek. 16: 8), and at the time of the marriage had warned her of His holy jealousness (Ex. 20: 5). And time after time subsequent to the marriage He had been provoked to jealousy, but had forborne, and been patient, calling again and again for repentance and confession (Deut. 32: 21, Ezek. 8: 3). But at length He pleads with her by this ordeal, while she, like any hardened wife who would dare to stand the trial with the consciousness of sin upon her, defies divine justice. "His blood be upon us and upon our children," from the lips of Israel, was as the woman's "Amen" to the invocation of the curse. But their confidence has been their shame. The sin of their mother was not blotted out in the trial (Ps. 109: 14). The water entered in and did its deadly work (v. 18); and to this day they are under the penalties of convicted infidelity. Israel has been judged as a woman that breaks wedlock (Ezek. 16: 38).

Such is the end of their ways. But the Lord has His ways also, and if theirs ended in conviction and shame and judgment, His will end in mercy, in peace, and in honour. There is with the Lord forgiveness for Israel. As Jesus said on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." There is to be acceptance for this unfaithful one with her injured Lord. She has played the harlot, it is true, and so has the trial of jealousy found it; she has said, "I will go after my lovers," but the Lord has also said, "I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies" (see Hosea 2, 3). And when this comes to pass, the very blessing which is promised to the wife who stood acquitted in the trial of jealousy, shall be Israel's; for she shall then be made free, the free-woman and a joyful mother of children (see Num. 5: 28, and Isa. 54: 1).

But before she be thus married to her Maker and Redeemer in the bonds of the new covenant, she is to have a time of espousals, in which the Lord will discipline her and form her for Himself. She is never to be restored to the old covenant. Her ruins under that lie as enduring as the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah; but God will remember His covenant with her and establish unto her an everlasting covenant (Ezek. 16: 55, 60). And her day of espousals will prepare her for this abiding union. In that day she will be brought to know her own ways and loathe herself for all her abominations, to be confounded and never open her mouth any more because of her shame. But she will also be taught to know the Lord's ways, and rejoice in the grace and the fulness of His love, whereby He will then be pacified toward her (Ezek. 16: 60-63). In that day He will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and then speak comfortably unto her. He will hedge up her way with thorns, and make a wall so that she shall not find her paths; but all this discipline will only be in order to lead her to say, "I will go and return unto my first husband, for then was it better with me than now" Hosea 2). "She shall in that day seek again the Lord her God, and David her king" Hosea 3). The Lord will give her "the spirit of adoption" (Jer. 3: 19). "She shall forget her own people and her father's house" (Ps. 45: 10) "She shall hearken and incline her ear, and the King shall greatly desire her beauty." Then shall the cry of "Ishi" be put into her mouth, and the Lord will delight in her, and call her His "Hephzibah" (Isa. 62, Hosea 2).

The book of the Canticles, and a large portion of the Psalms, give us the exercises of Jerusalem, the bride elect or the remnant of the Jews, during that day of her espousals and discipline. Ruth who first gleaned in the fields and afterwards lay at the feet of Boaz on the threshing-floor, is the type of Jerusalem thus in discipline and in espousals, as Ruth the wife of Boaz the mighty man of wealth is her type in all that honour and estate to which she shall be brought when the day of espousals ends in the covenant. And these things are also variously celebrated by all the prophets. But in all that they notice of these things, and of the Lord's tender love to His Jerusalem, I must mark one feature which has its peculiar interest for us. It is this — when the Lord has brought her to Himself in the bonds of the covenant, He does not, refer to her former state as one of divorcement, but rather of widowhood. That is, He does not call to mind the shame, but rather the sorrow, of her former estate. Though it may be divorcement and shame (Isa. 50: 1), yet the Lord will not remember it as such. May we not, brethren, notice the perfectness of such love as this? Does it not sweetly and affectingly tell us that with our God there is forgetting as well as forgiving? the taking away the sting of rebuking recollections, as well as the covering of the multitude of sins? We see this in that beautiful chapter (Isa. 54). There Jehovah, re-married to Jerusalem, looks back as in pity on her widowhood, and not as in anger on her divorcement. All this is perfect in the ways of the divine love. The human expression of this we get in Joseph, who is the type of Christ in this His love to Israel. For when Joseph forgave and accepted his brethren, he would have the memory of all that which was their guilt and dishonour blotted out for ever. "Now therefore," said he, "be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life."

These are some of the ways of His grace, beloved; but the source of them all, which is in Himself, is unsearchable. Unmeasured heights, and lengths, and depths, and breadths of love are there — a love that no man knows, and that is preparing for us what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived. Oh! that we drank more simply, more unmixedly of these waters. We should think much of the love of God, as it is in its fountains in Himself, and as it is in its streams spreading and diffusing itself among us, poor withered sinners. Let us not so much brood in sorrow, and complaint over thoughts of our narrow love to Him, but rather let His love be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, our enlarged souls entertaining the thought of it continually.

And here, for a moment, I would turn aside to express what I have felt at times touching the book of God, that in one respect it is indeed a melancholy saddening book. But I mean only as it is a record of man's ways. Open any historical portion of it, and there you will see man in his evil courses, going on in active enmity or reckless forgetfulness of God. Open any prophetic portion of it, and there yon will hear the voice of God's minister exposing, rebuking, warning or threatening poor evil man. All this makes the book a melancholy and saddening volume. From Genesis, through Exodus, and onward to the end, as your thoughts are led through man's paths, your heart will be led into lamentation and mourning.

But it is a book of light and joy also, full of rest for the weary, and of refreshing for those who are thus sick of man and his doings. But I mean only as it is the record of God's ways. Open it in any place of it, and there you will find His grace meeting man's sin, His counsels correcting man's foolishness, His efforts of love essaying one method after another to bring man home to Himself; and in the end you will see Him though refused and slighted, in the sovereignty of His grace building up families for heaven and earth, and filling all things with creation's joy in His own praise. Thus, brethren, let one page of this wondrous book show man to us, and all is sorrow and shame; let another show God to us, and all is rest and joy. And this will be found to be just as it should be, that "according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."

Let us return, and for a little while meditate on the church's more immediate interest in the truths I have been considering. I would observe that Scripture teaches us that the church knows of no marriage with her Lord, but of election and grace; and of that covenant which puts away sin, and preserves union for ever — in principle such a marriage as Jerusalem is to know in the latter day, and not such as Israel knew when of old they came out of Egypt. The church has never been married by a covenant that rests on her own fidelity and strength. Indeed as yet there has been no marriage of the church at all. There will be, but as yet there has been no presenting of the bride to the Lamb. Nor indeed could there have been; for the church is not fully formed, nor has the scene of their union, the home and inheritance of Christ and the church, been as yet prepared. For heaven is the scene of union (Rev. 19: 7), and out of heaven the Lamb's wife is seen to descend (Rev. 21). But it was otherwise with Israel of old. There might have been a marriage between her and the Lord of Hosts, as we have seen there was, because Israel as a nation was manifested under Joshua; and Canaan was the scene of the union.

But the church has never yet been manifested, for she is not yet fully formed. She is passing now through the time of her espousals, the time of discipline and preparation, that when she is married, she may be ready for her Lord, and fitted for abiding everlasting union with Him. She is during this age or dispensation on her journey to meet Him. She is like Rebecca under the charge of Abraham's servant, having left her father, her kindred, and her country, as the espoused of the distant and as yet unseen Isaac. But she fears not, she suspects not. She has committed herself to the care of a stranger, One Who is not known in this Mesopotamia of ours, One "Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him" (John 14: 17). But she knows Him, and trusts Him, and believes the report that He has brought her about her Isaac, and that His Father has given Him all the wealth of His house (Gen. 24: 36, John 16: 15). And though she, like Rebecca, has not seen Him, yet she loves Him; though as yet she sees Him not, yet believing she rejoices (1 Peter 1: 8). Her eye is toward Canaan, and her heart upon Isaac. But she has not yet reached Sarah's tent, Isaac's desired dwelling-place. She has goodly ornament upon her, brought out from Abraham's treasures, the pledges of Abraham's wealth, of Isaac's love, and of her guide's faithfulness; but she is still only on her way. And blessed is it, brethren, when our hearts are "in the way," when we are contented to know that to the end here it is but a journey. And we must take heed, lest, like Israel, we become discouraged because of the way. For the will of God must first be done, and then the promise (Heb. 10: 36).

Thus is it with us, beloved. It is a going still from strength to strength through the valley of Baca. It is the way before, as well as behind us, but still the way. So does the word of God describe it for us, and the word also describes this dispensation to us under the figure of the vestry to the church, if I may so speak, where the guests are putting on their wedding garments in preparation for the marriage. It is a kind of ante-room to the kingdom or the King's palace (Matt. 22: 11); a day of espousals, as we have already spoken, in which the church is learning the mind of the Lord, and the ways of His house; "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." Mark! that I may present you. The marriage is but in prospect. Personal individual union of the saints with their Head, so as to bring forth fruit unto God, there is now;* but presenting of the church unto Christ there is not as yet. Adam was cast into a deep sleep, and of the rib taken from his side while thus in sleep, was made a woman. But not till she was fully thus made, and Adam had awaked, was she brought to him. So in the mystery. The act of forming the church — the woman, is now going on; but the presentation cannot be till that act be finished, and Adam awakes; till "the whole body be fitly joined together and compacted," and the Lord arises, and shows Himself, and takes His prepared and loved one.

[*There is also the baptism of all by the Spirit into one body. — ED.]

And this mystery, the love and marriage of Christ and the church, in three stages of it, is beautifully disclosed to us in Eph. 5: 25-27.

I. — "Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it." That is, loving before the world was, He said "Lo I come"; and when His delights, as He speaks, "were with the sons of men." Then did He set His love upon the church, and in due time He gave Himself for it, sold all that He had that He might possess her — His pearl of great price.

2. — "That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." That is, during the present age, He is forming the church for Himself by the virtue and continuous ministry of His word and Spirit, till she is prepared as a bride for her husband.

3. — "That He might present it to Himself a glorious church." That is, after this age, in the coming kingdom, when He will have taken His bride, the church, then formed and ready, and made glorious like Himself; that He may find her His helpmeet, and be satisfied in her for ever.

We thus are taught that the church has not been, neither indeed could have been, as yet presented for the marriage in heaven (Rev. 19).

But the looking upon the church as though she had been already manifested and married has been, I judge, the occasion of giving her a very undue place and condition in the world. It has been a warrant for establishing her in the earth; for an establishment is an attempt to manifest or present the church. But this cannot be here, as we have seen. With Israel it might have been so, and was so; for the earth was Israel's home, but the church is a stranger here. And an understanding of this (and an understanding we should have in all things, 2 Tim. 2: 7) would have hindered this attempt. But there has not been in all this knowledge, and we have each of us, brethren, much of slowness of heart to bear with in one another, as the Lord with all of us a thousand-fold more than we ever estimate. And it is well to remember that it is written, "If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know."

But the understanding of this would, I judge, have hindered the Lord's people from ever consenting to the establishment of the church, which is the giving her a place and a dowry thus on the earth; as though the earth was her place, and she were as yet in this age, entitled to the form and the rights of a presented or married church. But the understanding of this would, not only as I judge, have thus hindered error, but have furnished comfort. For it would prepare the saints for the present distracted broken condition of every thing among them. And this would be no small comfort. It would teach them that they were not to expect in this age a perfect exhibition of the church, but they must look on it only as the time for forming and fashioning the church after the mind and counsel of God. And this would further lead them to know that things might be really better when apparently worse, worse as to their external general condition, but better as to the great ends of the dispensation. For the purpose of the divine Former of the church is to have the saints grow up in the life and power of communion with their Lord through the Spirit, rather than to assume any consistency and order, however good for present credit and security, which would not stand the light and purity of that day. For this would be answering the ends of the dispensation, bringing each of us into readiness for the day when we shall all be presented together without spot.

Oh! let us, dear brethren, have grace to cultivate this readiness for the Bridegroom. It depends on this communion with Him, while as yet He is absent; and on our minds being "kept in the simplicity that is in Christ," on their being formed only in and for Christ. Christ is our salvation, but Christ is our lesson also, the holy lesson we should each be diligently learning, careful and jealous that Satan be not teaching us another. When the Lord God was fashioning Eve, His design was to make her a helpmeet for Adam. His eye rested on Adam's joy, and on that only, all the while. Had any other design intruded, it would have been a corrupting of the fair workmanship. But the Lord God was true to the counsels of His love toward Adam. And so Adam found it; for when Eve was brought to him, he said, "This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh;" expressing thus his complacency in her, and thus owning that the lord God had prepared her for him in perfect love and wisdom.

And so when Abraham's servant, Eliezar of Damascus, was getting Rebecca ready for Isaac, he clothed her with raiment, and adorned her with jewels which he had brought out of Abraham's house. Nothing of Mesopotamia was found upon her; for Rebecca was to be for Isaac, and not for her own people. And so with the Spirit now. The purpose of the Holy Ghost now is to get the bride ready for the Lamb. We have been espoused to one husband that we may be presented to Christ. And how jealous should we be lest any thing should be forming our minds for any one but for Him! The gifts that have been sent down are only for uniting us in the knowledge of the Son, and that in all things we may grow up unto Him. Any other attempt is but sleight of man and cunning craftiness (Eph. 4). It may be fair and boastful of great and good things; but it is deceiving an angel of light, if it be not forming us in Christ. That is the point of jealousy with the saint. It may appear to be wisdom, or knowledge, or religion, or order, or some other thing of esteem; but it matters not: — it is deceitful and corrupting, if it exercise any art but the art of making us to grow up unto Christ. We want the broken heart, dear brethren, the fragments of which Jesus can take up. We want to dismiss all confidence in the flesh, for Jesus cannot use the flesh. We want to know more of the widowhood, the longings of one who waits for her Lord. He is absent, and many things solicit us the while, but we are to keep ourselves for Him. We are to be preparing as Eve for Adam, that when he awakes he may see the fruit of his deep sleep and be satisfied — as Rebecca for Isaac, that when the solitary saint lifts up his eyes and sees her who had left her kindred and country for him, he may be comforted (Gen. 24: 62-67). And doubtless we shall then be comforted and satisfied also. Will it not be enough to find ourselves by His side for ever? will it not be enough to see Him rejoicing over us as "His pearl of great price," for the sake of which He had parted with all that He had? Oh! if the sweetest joy of a faithful wife be this, to know that she has the abiding and best love of her lord; will not this be ours, brethren, without fear of change for ever? May we be true to Him Who never can be false to us, Who nourisheth and cherisheth us as His own flesh! J. G. B.

Waiting for the Son from Heaven

Waiting for the Son from Heaven.

1 Thessalonians 1: 10.

J. G. Bellett.

from  Musings on Scripture, Volume 1.

In the calculations of men, events unfold them. selves as the effects of causes which are known to be operating. But, while this has its truth, to faith it is God who, in His supremacy, holds a seal in His hand to stamp each day with its character or sign.

This gives the soul a fresh interest in the passing moments. Some of them may be more impressively stamped than others; but all are in progress, and each hour is contributing to the unfolding of the coming era, like the seasons of the year, or the advances of day and night. Some moments in such progresses may be more strongly marked than others. But all are in advance. Every stage of Israel's journey through the desert was bringing them nearer to Canaan, though some stages were tame and ordinary while others were full of incident. And so all the present age is accomplishing the advance of the promised kingdom, though some periods of it have greater importance than others.

These "signs of the times," or sealings of God's hand upon the passing hour, it is the duty of faith to discern, because they are always according to the premonitions of Scripture. Indeed, current events are only "signs," as they are according to, or in fulfilment of, such previous notices.

The words of the prophets made the doings of Jesus in the days of His flesh the signs of those days (Matt. 12: 22, 23). And have we not words in the New Testament which, in like manner, make all around us at this moment, or in every century of the dispensation, significant? Have not words, which we find there, abundantly forecast the characters of such dispensation, and given beforehand the forms of those corruptions that were to work in Christendom? They have told us what now our eyes have seen. They told us of the field of wheat and tares; of the mustard seed which became a lodging-place for the fowl of the air; of "the unmerciful servant;" of the Gentile not "continuing in God's goodness;" or of a "great house," with its vessels unto honour and dishonour; and of other like things. They told us of "the latter times," and of "the last days;" and they still tell the deadly character which the hour is to bear that is to usher forth "the man of sin," and ripen iniquity for the manifestation and power of the day of the Lord.

All this is so. And let me ask, if every hour be after this manner bearing its character, or wearing its sign, what mark are we individually helping to put upon this our day? Is the purpose and way of the Lord ripening into blessedness at all reflected in us? or are we, in any measure, aiding to unfold that form of evil which is to bring down the judgment? If the times were to be known and described according to our way, what character would they bear? what sign would distinguish them?

These are enquiries for the conscience of each of us. We cannot be neutral in this matter. We cannot be idle in this market-place. It may be but in comparative feebleness; but still each of us, within the range of the action of Christendom, is either helping to disclose God's way, or to ripen the vine of the earth for the winepress of wrath.

The Lord tells us that the sign on which our faith must rest is that of a humbled Christ, such a sign as that of Jonah the prophet. Our faith deals with such a sign, because our need as sinners casts us on a Saviour or a humbled Christ. But hope may feed on a thousand signs. Our expectations are nourished by a sight of the operations of the divine hand displaying every hour the ripening of the divine counsels and promises, in spite of the world, and in the very face of increasing human energies.

These signs may be watched, but watched by the saint already in the place and attitude assigned him by the Spirit. They are not to determine what is his place, but they may exercise him in it. His place and attitude is beforehand and independently determined for him — waiting for the Son of God from heaven.

This posture the Thessalonian saints assumed on their believing the gospel (1 Thess. 1: 9, 10). The apostle seems afterwards to strengthen them in that posture, by telling them that from it they were to be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4: 17). And again afterwards he seems to guard them against being disturbed in that attitude, against being tempted to give it up, by further telling them, that that place of expectation should be exchanged for the place of meeting ere the day of the Lord fell with its terrors on the world and the wicked (2 Thess. 2: 1). And, still further, this very posture of waiting for the Son from heaven had induced a certain evil. The Thessalonian saints were neglecting present handiworks. The apostle does not in any wise seek to change their posture, but admonishes them to hold it in company with diligence and watchfulness, that, while their eye was gazing, their hand might be working (2 Thess. 3)

Other New Testament Scriptures seem also to assume the fact, that faith had given all the saints this same attitude of soul; or, that the things taught them were fitted to do so (See 1 Cor. 1: 7; 1 Cor. 15: 23; Phil. 3: 20; Titus 2: 13; Heb. 9: 28).

Admonitions and encouragements of the like tendency (that is, to strengthen us in this place and posture of heart) the Lord Himself seems to me to give, just at the bright and blessed close of the volume.

"I come quickly" is announced by Him three times in Rev. 22 — words directly suited to keep the heart, that listens to them believingly, in the attitude of which I am speaking. But different words of warning and encouragement accompany this voice.

1. "Behold I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book" (verse 7). This warns us that, while we are waiting for Him, we must do so with watchful, obedient, observant minds, heedful of His words.

2. "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give everyone according as his work shall be" (ver. 12). This encourages to diligence, telling us, that by the occupation of our talents now during His absence, on the promised and expected return He will have honours to impart to us.

3. "Surely, I come quickly," is again the word (ver. 20). This is a simple promise. It is neither a warning nor an encouragement. Nothing accompanies the announcement, as in the other cases. It is, as it were, simply a promise to bring Himself with Him on His coming again. But it is the highest and the dearest thing. The heart may be silent before a warning and before an encouragement: such words may get their audience in secret from the conscience. But this promise of the simple personal return of Christ gets its answer from the saints. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

Thus the Lord, after this various and beautiful manner, does the business of the Spirit in the apostles. His own voice, in these different and striking announcements, encourages the saints to maintain the attitude of waiting for Him.

Great things are a-doing. The church, the Jew, and the Gentile, are all in characteristic activity, each full of preparation and expectancy. But faith waits for that which comes not with such things. The rapture of the saints is part of the mystery, part of "the hidden wisdom." The coming of the Son of God from heaven is a fact, as I judge, apart altogether from the history or the condition of the world around.

Walk in the Spirit

Walk in the Spirit.

Gal. 5: 16.

J. G. Bellett.

BT vol. 19 p. 372.

"Out of the eater came forth sweetness" has been the test of divine providence exemplified in all ages of the world. Sin, with all its misery, brought Jesus. In the church at Corinth the misery of the flesh disclosed many a secret. If the eater had not gone to Corinth, a stronger than he had not gone after him, nor out of the eater such sweetness come forth to us; nor in the Colossians such fulness of the Lord Jesus.

But the Galatians eminently show forth how the eater had gone in and given occasion for a blessed expression of the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus, and the blessedness of a simple-hearted acquaintance with the Son of God. Oh! what a blessed profession it is when we profess the Son of God and none but the Son. No epistle is more fervent taking its character of fervency from a fresh delight in Jesus, a fervency well accounted for by the thought of Jesus defending (not merely fervency in defence of impugned truth, but) the fervency of a soul given to taste afresh the virtues and divine perfection of the Son. And what would you covet but this in these days when the world is on every side challenging the rights of the Son, bringing in man's religion, edifices, and ceremonies, and ordinances? The strong man enters in to challenge the claims of the Son of man; and shall we see it and be without the fervency of Paul?

Let us turn to Galatians 1 where we find the first virtue of the Son revealed to his soul, making him entirely independent of flesh and blood; let us read verses 15 and 16. Having got the Son, Paul had got all, Jerusalem was nothing, even apostles were nothing; standing as a sinner brought entirely home, he wanted nothing besides. How fine is this fervency thrown in the face of Galatian error! The moment the Son was revealed, he conferred not with flesh and blood. Those rights of the Son, so divine, so supreme, only let them be understood; and I ask your convicted conscience whether they are not claims so exclusive, that nothing else can be thought of. We cannot see Jerusalem, in one sense, cannot see even brethren, cannot confer with flesh and blood: can we each of us throw ourselves open to be read? Mark how Paul did. The moment the Son was revealed he went not to Jerusalem, nor to the apostles but into Arabia, independent of all belonging to flesh and blood, With what emphasis he reads out the first virtue of the Son in that divine independency of everything short of Himself! And ought not each of us to go about showing to the world and all about us this precious independency of all but the One revealed to our souls? Imputed righteousness is as much ours as it was Abraham's; Paul had not a richer profession than mine. O let this divine independency be read in us by all! The claims the Son had on Paul's conscience instantly made him independent of everything. If Jerusalem, the apostles, brethren, and all the claims of flesh and blood, be put together in the balance of a conscience: put the Son in one scale, with all this in the other and would it not be as the fine dust in the balance?

In Galatians 2 we have not only independent Paul, but bold Paul. Peter had been the companion of the Lord Jesus, when Paul was the enemy of Jesus Christ; and if anyone could have intimidated Paul, this Peter must have been able to do so, But the man in Arabia was not to be intimidated by flesh and blood. Oh for more of Paul's boldness to show we have been on the road to Arabia with the Lord! Do we ever make in private an essay of what we have in Jesus? Are there any to whom we give place? Read vers. 4, 5: there Paul's soul was making an essay of all he had in Jesus; and beautiful is his independence of flesh and blood. And yet this is the man who could have his heart broken by other's tears, who could ask for the prayers of saints as one feeling need of help!

But now it is another style altogether. Had he then ceased to be feeling and gentle? Not a bit! but the claims of the Son are abroad, he cannot withstand them; and when he meets Peter it is with the boldness of a lion. If flesh and blood could make him tremble, it was in Peter. Did he tremble? No! but withstood him to the face, and yet Peter was serving Christ. But Paul had that in him that could not suffer for a moment the dissimulation of the flesh in Peter. And this is the spirit we want in this day when the claims of the Son are so challenged by the Galatian spirit on many a side. Paul teaches us how to have this boldness, and he does not merely teach, but shows it is our property as well as his. If the Son has been revealed in me, I want nothing but Himself: churches and ordinances can do nothing for me. If I have the Son, I have everything.

We see in Paul the fervency and the sensitiveness of love: he could not allow the claims of the Son to be touched or to be soiled for a moment. It was the revelation of God, and was deep in his soul; and that is what you want. Give the deeper parts of your soul to Jesus and will you be any other than independent? Get Jesus deep down into your soul, and you will have Paul's spirit to whom God had given the Son, and He was deep in his soul. I want Christ to be so revealed as to make me independent of all flesh and blood, of everything but Himself Who puts each one and thing in its due place.

In Galatians 3, having traced Christ revealed in the independent man of Arabia, the bold man of Antioch, we shall now find him as a son in the Father's house in the presence of God.

Read Galatians 4. Observe he would have you there with himself in the same liberty. "I beseech you be ye as I am" is the happy freedom of a son in the Father's presence, (the spirit of Isaac, laughter, not Hagar gendering to bondage). He will not have a bit of bondage, he has the Spirit of the Son in his heart. And Oh what manner of people has the Spirit of God made us! how entirely setting us free from the claims of flesh and blood, and nothing less than a Father's house! Is there anything beyond that wanted to set you free? Happy, if happy, because brought into relationship with the Father; and nothing can make you happy but that; nothing does for the heart personally but the sense of relationship; and this is what He has brought me into, calling me to His kingdom, and giving me a home there. If you look round in the sense of relationship, cannot you feel you have a home on high? You are not only a son, but an heir, of God through Christ. The excellency of the gift I will never challenge, nor let others. I want all that the Son is to me deep down in my soul, but oh! let me have the simple childlike mind that knows I have a home up there. The son of the bondwoman has no more right to be in the Father's house than Peter with his subtleties had to bring the children of the free woman into bondage. Is not this Epistle as a whip of small cords to drive out all such things from amongst the children of promise? To know the presence of God as a sanctuary and home for my soul, this is what I want. J. G. B.

The Watcher and the Holy One

The Watcher and the Holy One.

Daniel 4.

J. G. Bellett.

from Musings on Scripture, Volume 2.

[Only articles not found elsewhere are shown here.]

The present is a moment of great significance in the world's history. We often speak of other days as having been strongly characterised, and as of high importance in the progress of the way of man, and in the unfolding of the purposes of God. Were we but in the due position, so as to look at them aright, the present would be seen by us as equal to any of them in importance and in meaning.

Man is preparing that great exhibition of himself, whereby the whole world is to be ensnared and deceived to its final utter ruin. Such a condition of things has already had many a miniature resemblance; and nothing has escaped the snare but "the mind of Christ," i.e., the man of God led by the Spirit through the spacious and commanding delusion.

There was, in other days, a tree whose leaves were fair and whose fruit was much, the height of which reached unto heaven, and the sight of it to the end of all the earth, the beasts of the field had shadow under it, the birds of the air dwelt in the boughs of it, and all flesh fed on it. It was, after this manner, the admiration and the boast of all: their desire was towards it; and the heart of the man who planted it affected it as his glory and joy. "In not this great Babylon that I have builded," said the king Nebuchadnezzar.

Thus was it, this fair luxuriant tree. All flesh was content, and man's heart feasted on it; the ends of the earth gazed at it; and thus it got its sanction from all that was in man or of man.

In a little space, however, heaven visited it: and it was altogether another thing in the judgment of heaven. The Watcher and the Holy One came down, as the Lord Himself had done in the still earlier days of Babel and of Sodom, and this visitor from heaven inspected this tree of beauteous wondrous growth. But with Him it was no object of admiration or worship. He was not moved to desire its beauty. In His thoughts it was not a tree good for food, or pleasant to the eye, or desirable for any end, as it was in the thoughts of all flesh. He looked on it as on a thing ripe for righteous judgment, and He said of it, "Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit."

This was solemn, in a moment of common universal exaltation, when the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and all flesh, were glorying in the thing which heaven was thus dooming to destruction. But Daniel among men in that day was one who had the mind of heaven, the mind of the Watcher and the Holy One respecting this tree — but such as he only. For the saint on the earth has the mind of heaven in him. This is our place. All flesh may feed on that, of which faith, or the mind of Christ in us, sees the end under the sure judgment of God.

This is so; and may we experience it! But moral danger and temptation beset our hearts. "That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." And the saint, in these days, is in great danger of having more of the mind of man in him than that of God. Look at even such an one as Samuel. When Eliab stood before him, he said, "the Lord's anointed is before me." But he looked where the Lord did not look. He eyed the countenance of the man, and the height of his stature, while the Lord eyed the heart. And we are in danger (in these days of both religious and secular attractions) of mistaking Eliab again for the Lord's anointed. Paul was held in some contempt at Corinth because of his "bodily presence," which was "weak." He was no Eliab. He was wanting in "outward appearance" (see 1 Sam. 16: 7; 2 Cor. 10: 7), and even the disciples at Corinth were beguiled away from him.

All this is warning to us in this solemn and significant day, when man's exaltation of himself is growing apace, and things are judged of by the mind of man, and in their bearing on the advancement of the world.

But, again, when the disciples were held in admiration, religions admiration, of the buildings of the temple, we have a like occasion of the rebuke which the mind of man met from the mind of God. "As He went, out of the temple, one of His disciples said unto Him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here; and Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." (Mark 13)

This has the same moral character in it. It is the erring judgment of man, spending its delight and wonder on what the righteous judgment of God has already and solemnly renounced. The Lord (may I say?) was as the Watcher and the Holy One of the prophet, delivering the sentence of heaven upon the boast and pride of the heart of man, found too in the place of religion. And again, I ask, has not this a voice in the of this present generation?

The case, however, which above all has fixed my mind at this time, is that in Luke 19, where the multitude are following the Lord on His way from Jericho to Jerusalem. We are there told of them, that "they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear."

This tells us again of the expectation of man's heart. The people judged that the present scene, the world as in man's hand, could get its sanction from God. The kingdom, they thought, would be set up at once. But this can never be. Christ cannot adopt man's world. Through repentance and faith man must take up with Christ's world, and not think that Christ can take up with his. The kingdom cannot come fill judgment shall have cleared the scene of man's iniquities and pollutions. But this is not what man calculates on at all. He judges that the kingdom may immediately appear — appear, or be set up, without any purifying, any change: all that is wanting is advancement a few steps farther, as from Jericho to Jerusalem, a little more progress in the growing scene, and all will be the kingdom fit for God's adoption.

This is the mind of this present generation — like those who, in this chapter in Luke, "thought that the kingdom of heaven should immediately appear." Things are so advanced, so refined, so cultivated by a multitude of fresh energies, moral, religious, and scientific, that under the success and progress of such energies, the world will do for Christ in a very little while. But no, it is man's, world still, and this will never do for Christ. You may sweep and garnish the house, but it is the house of the old owner still, and, for all the pains spent upon it, only the more fit for the old owner's designs, and in no wise one single bit more suited to God's great and glorious purposes.

Jesus goes up to Jerusalem. But He finds there a field of thorns and briars; there were money-changers, and sellers of doves in the temple of God. The house of prayer was a den of thieves. The rulers, chief priests, and scribes, were seeking to destroy the Just One. The religion of the place was chief in the offence. Jesus wept over it; instead of all being ready for the kingdom appearing immediately, all was but ready for judgment, for the stones crying out immediately. And thus, the city, as Jesus said of it, was soon to be entrenched and encompassed, and laid even with the ground, instead of being the habitation of glory, and the witness of the kingdom of God.

I ask myself, has not all this a voice for our ears in this generation? "That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." Jesus, as a Holy One and a Watcher again on this occasion, as in Matthew 24: 1, 2, inspected the fair tree of man's worship and joy, and in spirit said "Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit." And so is my soul deeply assured He is doing at this moment, touching all the progress and advancement and boasted toils and successes of this present hour. He that sits in the heavens has another thought of it all than men vainly imagine. He is not about to sanction, but to judge the world in this its day (a day near at hand) of loftiest advancement and exaltation.