and the world seeth Me no more, but ye see Me, because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know," &c. (John xiv. 18, 19, and John xvi. 16-22.) "A little while," (how He repeats that word,) and ye shall not see Me, and again a little while, and ye shall see Me," (the promise again!). Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy" "I will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." This dispensation is "the kingdom and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ". (Rev. i. 9.) We are in the Kingdom, and in the patience too. "In your patience possess ye your souls" (addressed to the Jewish remnant, this applies also to us the remnant of this age).

"Ye have need of patience." Not only because we are in the midst of a "crooked and perverse generation," the consolation for which is, "Be ye also patient, stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh". (James v. 8.) Why that "also" see the verse before. "Be patient therefore brethren, (the margin has suffer with long patience') unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the Husbandman wuiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until He receive the early and latter rain." He is the Husbandman, and we the precious fruit. "Be patient therefore until it be all ripe."

Shall we not then welcome rather the north wind of trial, as well as the south wind of His love, to blow upon our garden, that the spices thereof may flow out, when we shall say "let my beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits" (Cant. iv. 16.)

But also "ye ye have need of patience". For we groan to be delivered from "the body of this death" (Rom. vii. 24, marg.), from the presence of sin in us, as well as from its power over us. We are delivered from the latter; for deliverance from the former we groan within ourselves". (Rom. viii. 23.) And "ye have need of patience," while we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. (Phil. iii. 20, 21.) We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John iii. 2.) "I shall be satisfied when I shall awake in thy likeness." (Ps. xvii. 15).

"Ye have need of patience." Oh crowning need of all, (( we would see Jesus!" we would see Him as He

and I

What was it that separated Israel from Egypt and the nations around? Was it not this? Was it not this? "I will bring you out and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God will bring you in," &c. (Ex. vi. 6-8.) Of these, among others, we read that "these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly (DO WE ?) that they seek a country, and truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned: but now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city." (Heb. xi. 13-16.) Of that city we read "there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth ". (Rev. xxi. 27.)

'Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul." (1 Pet. ii. 11.) "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in Him."

(1 John ii. 15.) What is it that is to overcome the world, with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, thronging around us, besieging every avenue of the soul? What can give us the anointed eye to pierce its miasmic vapours? what can deliver us from its delusions? for "every man walketh in a vain show, and disquieteth himself in vain ". (Ps. xxxix. 6.)

"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith." Moses "endured as seeing Him who is invisible". We too by faith "see Jesus" (Heb. ii. 9.) and "we wait for His Son, the Son of God, from heaven". (1 Thess. i. 10.)

"Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father to you and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord God Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.” (2 Cor. vi. vii. 1.)

Should any one say, "Who is sufficient for these things?" He who commands, calls Himself (in the same text) the "Lord, God Almighty". The "Lord" thy Lord and Master. Has He not a right to thine obedience and "God Almighty". El Shaddai, the Allsufficient One. "Our sufficiency is of God." (2 Cor. iii. 5.) "My grace is sufficient for thee." (2 Cor. xii. 9.) He is "able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy". (Jude 24)

"And now little children, abide in Him, ("He, that abideth in Him, sineth not ") (1 John iii. 6) that when He shall appear, we may have confidence and not shrink (lit.) away from Him at His coming". (1 John ii. 28.)

I need hardly say, this paper is only addressed to Christians.

As for you that are still "without Christ" alas! alas, for all that are left behind to await the coming of the Son of Man in judgment to the earth!

"Behold He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him and all kindreds of the earth shall

..

wail because of Him." (Rev. i. 7.)

You that keep His first coming in such joyful festivals, how will you greet the second advent of the Lord" woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! To what end is it for you? Th day of the Lord is

darkness and not light". (Am. v. 18.) What can I say to you? "Kiss the Son lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled (see Rev. vi. 17) but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." (Ps. ii. 12.)

LEANING UPON THE BELOVED.

"WHO

CANTICLES III. 6. VI. 10. VIII. 5.

WHO is this that cometh out of the wilderness?" "Who is she that looketh forth as the morniug?" And again, "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" In these precious scriptures we get a thought of the Lord's wondering delight in His Church: the outflow of a love that, in spite of all her grieving of His heart, can yet look past it all to see her hidden in Himself: all her blessing the purchase of His blood on Calvary : all her beauty the fruit of the travail of His soul, and the reflection of the glory of His own grace. We get a twofold thought here-our relation to the wilderness and our relationship to Christ. In the wilderness, yet hasting out of it, every step leaves the toils and sorrows of our little journey farther and farther behind. Do we cherish the word He has given us as we pass along in our heavenly strangership, not of it, but of Him? (John xvii. 16.) Travellers but not dwellers here, already in spirit past its borders, having found, even now, the fulness of our rest in Him, who shall be the fulness of our joy for ever.

Are we leaning on Him; making our weariness and our burdens His? This is what He wants. "Casting all your care upon Him," for this blessed reason, "He careth for you". Can we know he cares for us with such a tender care, and yet bear the burdens that He would make His own? Into this place of nearness, into which His blood has brought us, can doubts of His love enter? Ah! let us remember this, the blood has brought us there. Let us remember what it cost Him to bring us there, and what it costs Him to keep us there. Can we be anxious about our path if we take step by step with Him? Once He trod it for us, learning alone the lessons of suffering for the succour of His saints; but again, may we not say, He goes over it all with us. We never can know how intensely alone He was here, but He will never leave us for a moment. "I will not leave you comfortless; I will

come to you." Having entered as our forerunner into the heavenly places, in one sense He stands for us in the presence of the Father: in another sense He retraces with us again the journey homeward, unwearied because of the freshness of His unfailing love. Can our hearts dwell on the scenes around us while He is Can we look away from His face (2 Cor. iv. 6) at the circumstances of the way? Surely Gabriel would answer, no. What shall we say? Shall it be self or Christ? Shall we give Him our undivided hearts? Can we give less to Him who, from the bosom of the Father, gave Himself for us.

so near.

"Leaning upon her beloved." What a thought it gives us of His occupation with us. In the presence of God for us: in the wilderness with us. Behold, what manner of love! How shall we comprehend it? It is our life lesson, and yet it is never learned. To know it as it is, would be to be filled with all the fulness of God. (Eph. iii. 18-19.)

If we are leaning upon Him, who else can fill our eyes and hearts but Jesus? and thus we have in Canticles vi. 10, "who is she that looketh forth?" It is our only comeliness before God. "We all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image" as we gaze, beholding Him in our hearts as in a glass, the glory is caught, impressed, and reflected. We are good for nothing but to be reflectors of Christ; and thus we find in Canticles vi. 10, the glory and the power following the looking forth, "Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners". The glory is centred in the person of Christ in us it can be but reflected : yet if it be an unhindered reflection, the likeness will be true to the original: (John i. 16) only at any moment, a shadow may pass between, shewing us, the glory is all His own, it was but pourtrayed in the glass. For this reflecting then, there must be just the open mirror, turned toward the one object, having no shadow of aught else between. Is it thus with our hearts: do we want to be like Him? is there no hindering shadow of self-nothing between? Are we looking forth, in simple undivided worship of heart, always and only at Jesus? What lessons we get here: what need of diligent watching, that we keep undimmed this imparted glory, which only He can delight in. (Can. iv. 8-9.)

God then has linked the "looking forth", with the strength and the blessing: the leaning on Him, with the coming up from the wilderness. All our self

We

efforts are in vain. We must yield to conquer. want, not so much to struggle with Satan, as to surrender to Christ, and to abide in Him as our shield and our victory. Our place indeed is the place of wrestlers, (Eph. vi.) but, in Him, it is the place of conquerors, yea, of more than conquerors, through Him that loved us. We need to take unto us the whole armour of God, and where He has put us to stand. Measured against the "power of His might," what are the hosts of Satan? But we are often looking the wrong way, at self and not at Christ: looking in instead of looking forth. We want to come with Him, (Can. iv. 8,) and with Him to look from the top of the mountains. Then as we lean on Him, we shall follow His steps, nearer and closer, until faith's full assurance is lost in the perfected, but not more real, companionship with Him whom we wait for-known and loved in the wilderness-seen without a cloud in the glory.

A. E. W.

NOTES ON 1 TIMOTHY, CHAPTERS I., II., III. HAP. i. 1. We must see our salvation in God, as

in it. The Apostle says, God, our Saviour and Christ Jesus our hope.

Verses 8, 9, 10.

Surely, beloved, the law is good, as the Apostle here says, but it must be kept in its proper place, and its place is not in the church, but outside the door, there to do its werk among all outside. When the church looks out from her security, she sees naught but evil, then the law is at work among those mentioned in the 9th and 10th verses, all that is contrary to the glorious gospel of the blessed God. The heart of Paul burns when he speaks of the gospel; when speaking of the law, he says it is good; but his spirit breaks forth at the sound of the gospel-it is the glorious gospel of the blessed God (or as in the original), the happy God. And, beloved, how happy (so to speak), how happy the gospel makes the heart of our God, because in it He is a giver—it was His own mind He spoke when He said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive". When He of old spoke by the law, He was a receiver. The law, in all its ceremonies, was saying "give me, give me". The voice of the blessed gospel is "receive ye, receive ye”. The gospel brings just as much glory to God, as the law in all its purity could do, and it brings other glories

to shine besides. In it truth and mercy meet each other, and oh, how sweet a meeting-truth can still be there, righteousness and peace kiss each other, while righteousness in its full demand is answered.

In the 17th verse, I judge that the spirit in Paul went a little into prophecy, his longing heart pierced the vista, and caught a glimpse of the bringing in of the remnant of his own nation, and this glimpse gives rise to the beautiful doxology into which the spirit now breaks out "now unto the King Eternal". It is not now to God the Saviour, for he sees Him seated on His rightful throne, the throne of David, and sings as it were, the Jewish song, "now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only true God, be honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen." He just breaks out in this place, as in his note of admiration in Romans, when speaking on the same subject, he says, "O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God," &c. And surely, beloved, when we thus track the course of the spirit in St. Paul, it should not be as a schoolboy learns his lessons, but to catch up the train of inspiration in our own spirit, and thus follow it out into such blessed paths. We cannot, it is true, have immediate inspiration, like Paul's, but surely I judge, it is not too much to say that we may as it were just catch the skirt of the inspiration.

2nd Chap.-We have seen, beloved, just now the furniture of the house. They were taken from those outside, but when once in the house each has his several occupations, and we see what this occupation is in the first verse of the second chapter: "I exhort, therefore, that first of all supplication, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men ". As soon, beloved, as we come into the house, we must breathe the atmosphere of the house, we inhale the sweet breath of love, and so we must breathe out the same sweet odour on all around us. As the loving and longing heart of Jesus sought us when we were outside, so our hearts ought to be going out in the same longings after those who are still there. Surely our feet were caught in the net of love, and we must lay the same net for them, as the hymn says, "We are the poor captives of love-the blessed captives of love". We are to pray for those in authority, and for peace, because the peace of the Church depends on the peace around it.

3rd verse-"For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour." Good here signifies

comely. There is now no comliness. Of old, when kings or priests were to be chosen they were to be without spot or stain in the flesh, but we have now no such beauty. It is moral beauty alone that God can look at; not God our Judge but God our Saviour. Even Paul got a thorn in the flesh, but did it make him a whit less lovely in the sight of God? No, no, beloved, surely not.

We see in the 4th verse the will of God, that all should be saved. Then in the 5th verse how blessedly we see. Him the common God of all mankind. He is the God of the Gentiles also and one Mediator. It is not one Mediator between God and the Jew, but one Mediator between God and man; it is not the Jew Christ Jesus but the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all. Then how sweetly we have the women set forth as a type of the Church, learning in all subjection from her Head, which is Christ Jesus. We are the house of God, He dwells in us-we are His habitation.

In the last verse of the 3rd chapter we have the mystery of godliness set forth-God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, and He alone could be justified in the Spirit, for He was pure and spotless, whether we see Him in the womb of the Virgin Mary or as the Man of sorrows; but we can only be justified by the blood of Jesus, our sins and defilement need the blood of this sacrifice, Who gave Himself without spot to God. "Seen of angels." What a sight for angels to gaze on! this bright and glorious one coming down to our earth, and taking the human form. Though angels could gaze with delight and admiration on the wondrous scene, they could but gaze; we are more closely connected with it, we are interwoven in the work. "Preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." The only thing which brought the glorious Lord to our earth was, as it were, to fasten a link here below to the human family, that He might draw it up after Him to His glory. J. G. B.

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