We are chastened that we might be partakers of His holiness, and God gets His joy, when Christ is manifested in us, as we tread in the path in which He is leased to lead us.

The dross is purged in the furnace, that the fine gold may come forth, unto the praise and honour of Him who walketh in the midst of the burning fiery furuace, to see that our faith fail not.

Is it not a sweet thought that He who now is with us was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin, and can remember we are dust, for He who is God over all was brought into the dust of death.

All the glory of man in Him was withered, for He who had the consciousness of being heir of all things was cut off and had nothing; but now He who thus acquiesced in the will of His Father, saying, "Not my will but thine be done," is crowned with glory and honour. Yes, that blessed Man, who allowed all His glory as man to be withered that God might be glorified, is glorified thereby. (Phil. ii. 8 to 11.)

Thus we see Jesus as a light shining in a dark place, but soon the day shall dawn, and among the many sons we shall see and prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God that led us in the pathway of the Son, into the light of His own presence, that to all eternity our joy may be in God.

THE LEVITES.

T. C.

NOTES OF AN ADDRESS BY JOHN RITCHIE.-PART II.

"BE

THE WORK OF THE LORD.

E ye stedfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord" (1 Cor. xv. 58), but work and the "work of the Lord" are two very different things. May every Christian worker here be taught of God to discern this difference.

We may undertake, and pursue zealously, any service nearest our hand, or that our foolish proud natural hearts may lead us into, or that another may devise and call us to. We may be busily and actively engaged in it with man's approval and admiration, but is this what Scripture calls "The work of the Lord "? Will this gain the Master's "well done" when the servant and his service, with the true hidden motives that led to it, stand unveiled before the judgment seat? Nay, verily beloved. The Lord will never own such service as His work, even though the servant may be His own. It is to be feared that much of the activity of Christian workers now considered real service for

God, will in that day of fiery trial, and weighing in the balances of God be found wanting in value, mere tinsel, the fruit of an unbroken will that never bowed before Jesus Christ as Lord, saying "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do".

The work He calls to, qualifies for, and commands His own servant to do, is the Lord's work and nothing else. So we read "The Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to every man his work". (Mark xiii. 34.) Here, beloved worker is the "work of the Lord". What the Master gave the servant to do, during His absence from "His house,” and His sojourn in the "far country." And inasmuch as the Lord's servant pursues His divinely appointed sphere of labour seeking to please his absent Lord, he is doing the work of the Lord, and, at His return will receive his reward according to his labour. This is what we are exhorted to "abound" in, and what is so beautifully illustrated in the service of the Levites to which I now turn.

We have seen the tribe of Levi, chosen, called, cleansed, and given to the Lord for His Service, and now the 8,580 girded servants stand ready to engage in "the work of the Lord". But who is to set them to work, or how is such an army of workers to be controlled, and kept every man at his post in the midst of a waste howling wilderness? Experience they have none; examples of others who had gone before and done the same work there is no trace of; how then will it be possible to proceed? or how can they be kept from jostling one against another in their work? To man these difficulties would have been, and still are, insurmountable, and he would have turned from the scene prophesying of certain failure, democracy, confusion and strife. But it was not so, for God had ordered all, and given to every man His work, and under the supervision of God's High Priest (Num. iv. 27, 33), all things were done decently and in God's order, and not a jar was seen, or a note of discord heard among the 8,580 of God's workers because every man was subject to the will of God, filling the very place and doing the very work assigned to him by his Master, and allowing his fellow-worker to do the same. And this is service according to God still. The servant of the Lord having received talents from His Master and individually responsible to Him for their use, goes forth and "trades" with them; but when servants begin to interfere with their fellow-servant's work, and to order

them in the doing of it while they neglect their own, confusion and disorder are the sad results, and the work of the Lord hindered. All around us we see this, where man's will is at work, and where man's order has been substituted for God's order, and man's authority substituted for God's word, while many of God's true servants are grinding under committees, synods, and councils, with their laws and prohibitions, like Samson shorn and blind in the Philistines' prison house, their power and discernment gone, affording the enemies of the cross "sport" at their utter weakness. What will such servants answer their Lord at His appearing?

Among the Levites no such disorders were seen, because the Lord had divided the work into parts, and the workers into families. To each of the three families of Kohath, Gershon, and Merari, the Lord gave a part of His tabernacle to bear through the desert, and to pitch when they encamped. The boards, bars, pillars, pins, and sockets, were the burden of the family of Merari. (Num. iii. 35, 37.) Their's was a heavy and cumbrous burden, and, as a gift from the princes of Israel, 8 oxen and 4 waggons were given them to bear their burden the framework of God's dwelling place through the desert. When the cloud rested for the encamping of the pilgrim host, they were the first workmen on the ground. The silver sockets were laid on the desert sand, and quickly the heavy boards of shittim wood and gold were raised up and fitted into the sockets, and the bars put through the golden rings framing the boards together into one tabernacle-the dwelling place of Israel's God. Thus their toil was ended, and their brethren and fellow-labourers the Gershonites commenced their part of the work. To the Gershonites was committed the curtains, coverings, hangings and cords, the more beautiful part of God's dwelling place, and for the bearing of these 2 waggons and 4 oxen were given them. (Num. iii. 23-26, vii. 7.) The Service of the families of Merari and Gershon was closely linked together. Merari laid the foundation and built the framework, while Gershon covered with the curtains and coverings, and strengthened with the cords, what their brethren had already builded. They walked together on the march (Num. x. 17), and halted together for their labour-while a space of three tribes intervened between them and their brethren the Kohathites who followed bearing the Holy Vessels, viz., the the ark, the table, the candlestick, and altars, and for these no waggons were given, they were borne on their

shoulders along the desert in their travelling dresses of blue, purple, scarlet, and badger's skins. (Num. iii. 29-32, iv. 2-14, vii. 9.) They found a tabernacle already built by the energy of their brethren who had gone before them, and into that tabernacle they carried the golden vessels and placed them in order in the Holy and most Holy place, and the brazen vessels in the outer court as the Lord commanded Moses". (See Exodus xl. 1-32. Numbers x. 21.)

Now all this was perfectly beautiful and shews to us how, that when God's work is done in God's way, by God's servants, it is well done. There was the greatest diversity and yet the most perfect harmony, every worker was performing his part in the building of the house of God and not one could have been wanted. The Merarite with a "pin" and the Gershonite with a "cord" was needed as much as the Kohathite bearing the ark of the covenant, and he was pleasing and serving God in doing the work God gave him, as much as the other for he was doing the will of God and what does it matter to a subject, obedient Levite, whether that will was to carry a pin or a golden vessel, all was well, and he could look up from his happy God-glorifying task, and say-"This is the thing the Lord hath commanded to be done

"No service in itself is small

None great though earth it fill
But that is small that seeks its own
And great that seeks God's will.”

O beloved! may your Lord and mine write it on our hearts and may we know the blessedness of pleasing God and serving Him acceptably with reverence and Godly fear. (Heb. xii. 28.) But this is no easy matter in this day of Babel confusion, when almost every man is doing that which is right in his own eyes, to gain the praise of men whether it pleases God or not, for now-a-days under the title of " the Lord's work" every dishonest and God dishonouring trick is played, from the flagrant cheatery of the religious bazaar to raise funds to carry on what is called "the Lord's work," down to the meaner, and more subtle treachery of a pretended life of faith, (the counterfeit of the true servant who trusts in God alone for the supply of all his wants) which lurks around the rich, like vultures round a carcase, while the cry of "come over and help us from the poor and the needy falls unheeded on the covetous servant's ear. May every servant of God have grace to wash his hands of such unholy and base

reproach, and be like His Lord who was the perfect Servant, content to be of no reputation here, that he might finish the work His Father gave Him to do.

God has yet a dwelling place on earth, consisting of sinners saved by grace builded and fitly framed together into one glorious temple; one Holy Church founded on the Rock immovable-the Christ the Son of the Living God, and during this day of grace and the Spirit's work on earth it is being builded together for the eternal dwelling place of God among men. (Rev. xxi. 3.) In the building of this temple He yet employs His Levites, as it is written "We are labourers together with God" (1 Cor. iii. 9), and in so far as His servants labour in His work in fellowship with Him they build up the body of Christ. (Eph. iv. 12.) Called to such a holy service, and to work in company. with the Holy One as His fellow-workers, O how watchful we need to be, lest we grieve the Holy Ghost our power for service, or build after another pattern than the one laid down in the Word of God.

To the word of the Lord we will now turn to learn His will on this important matter of Ministry or service (the word in the Greek is the same) in the building of the Church of God the antitype of the tabernacle of Israel which we have just considered, and what we are about to read is the Master's unrepealed will for His Servants in all ages, although many tell us, its now "out of date" and "old fashioned," but this is only an excuse for the rejection of God's revealation of His will on Ministry, which, if it were believed and acted on, would cut at the root of all human appointment, church ordination, and giving of orders practised at this hour in the professing Church around us. It is for us, beloved, to have an ear open to the word of God, and a willing heart to obey in all things if we would please

Him.

Turn to Ephesians 4th chapter, read verses 7 to 14. This is God's thoughts on Ministry. The source of all these gifts is the Ascended Christ. "He gave" gifts to men and they received them, and used them for Him. No other authority or ordination was required, and none other but He could confer a gift. The Church did not choose, nor the Presbytery appoint, but the Church owned and thankfully received what God had given, but had no power to control; every man who had received the gift was individually responsible to the Lord for the using of it-and so are you my brother. If the Master has given you "talents"

to use for Him, go forth and "trade" with them, or you'll blush if His coming finds them buried in your napkin." (Matt. xxv. 14-29.)

See too, the variety of ministry we find here, and for what purpose-" He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ." (Eph. iv. 11, 12.)

Apostles were made so by the Lord Himself, such as Peter, James, John, and Paul. We have their epistles for our edification, and thus they minister to us still. Successors they have none, except "false apostles" (2 Cor. xi. 13), ministers of Satan, of whom Paul warned the Ephesian elders to beware as "coming after him" like "grevious wolves" (Acts xx. 29), and who evidently did, calling themselves "apostles," but were tried and found "liars" (see Rev. ii. 2.) Let the modern pretensions to "restored apostles" be tried by the same test, and it will as speedily vanish, notwithstanding the glare of misplaced Scripture subtle minds have thrown around it.

Prophets too are gone. They spoke by revelation from God apart from the word and before the canon of Scripture was complete. Judas and Silas (Acts xv. 32) also Agabias (xxi. 10) were prophets, as well as others we read of in 1 Cor. xiv. We do not see such men now, because we do not require them; the word of God is complete, and not to be added to on penalty of a curse, and all pretended "prophecies" we now hear so much of, are the mere fancies of "false prophets" misleading unstable souls, and seeking to beguile the saint from the diligent study of the written word, wherein all the prophecies of God are stored for our practical use as a light shining in a dark place until the day dawn. (2 Peter i. 19.) Apostles and Prophets were in the "foundation" (Eph. ii. 20) of the Church, but nowhere else to be seen in the building, therefore we look not for them among the servants of Jesus Christ.

STE

STEWARDSHIP.

re

"It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.' (1 Cor. iv. 2.) TEWARDSHIP implies not the possessing of that which is our own, but the charge of that which is another's. Thus we are not only required to be wise in the use of what we hold for God but we are 66 quired to be faithful". We are in danger of making serious mistakes in the right understanding of the relation in which we stand as servants, confounding it with the nearness and liberty of our relationship as sons. But the Holy Ghost makes a clear distinction. In the one we are before God in grace on the ground of what Christ is; in the other we stand before Him in responsibility; every talent He has entrusted us with to be rendered again with usury. It is no longer that what we have is our own, to do with it as our hearts may dictate. Whether it be gift, as in 1 Cor. iv. 1; or time, or strength, or money, we are not left to choose what we shall do with it-it is the Lord's. Do we thus look upon all we have without reserve? Not ours to give to Him, but His to use as He will in or by us. We are indeed left free agents in this matter, because in one sense our Lord is absent. He has left us here to trade for Him. (Matt. xxv. 16.)* He has entrusted His name, His honour, His gifts, to His saints; but for all of His that we misuse for our own self-indulgence and profit He will yet take account of His servants. Grace, indeed, will own in that day His work in us as ours, but it will be grace alone. He will put to our account service that we know not (Matt. xxv. 37), that He may have the joy of giving to each His reward. But if we have not been faithful in that which is another's, who shall give to us that which is our own? Nothing then is ours from which death can separate us, and yet we may in the use of the things lent to us for our little journey here, lay up treasure in heaven, which shall be eternally our own.

We learn the Divine estimate of stewardship from the little word "found". It gives us the thought of the searching eye of God looking for His own, seeking the fruit of that which He had sown, and for which He had watered, and waited long. It speaks to us of the light of the judgment-seat, where the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is; when no veil

* It is not intended to look at the parable of Matt. xxv. dispensationally, but with reference to the divine principles of righteousness and grace.

of outward comeliness can abide His presence, for there shall every man have praise of God.

Beloved fellow-saints, it is but a little till we stand there manifested. It will be too late then to mourn our mistakes; too late to retrace our stewardship. Shall we begin now, before Jesus comes, not to give to Him part of what is all His own, but to live in the consciousness that our lives are ransomed by blood; that every talent is taken from off the altar of consecration, so that we may use all as His, in holy fear, as stewards required to be faithful. A. E. W.

EPHESIANS, CHAPTER VI.

NCRIPTURE should not be read for one purpose

SCR

only. It should be read not only for light in doctrine, but also for correction and instruction in righteousness. Our progress in the energy and in the power of communion with God should be commensurate with our progress in knowledge. One person may read altogether for light, another for comfort, a third for searching the conscience, but to read for blessing, we must allow the Word to effect all its objects. For blessing, we must also feel its personal application.

A lovely picture may be presented to my mind, but I may not realise my position in it; so of the inheritance; or we may speak of brands plucked from the burning and not realise it of ourselves. A leading feature in this chapter is, that it represents believers as soldiers in the midst of enemies. Do we realise that we are the soldiers of Jesus Christ surrounded by malignant foes. This epistle very specially presents to us our privileges, and shews us our position in heavenly places, but also does, in a special manner let us see that we are brought into conflict, in those places, with powers and principalities, as in verses 12, 13. We contend not as Israel of old. We have other enemies to combat, even spiritual To fight successfully with them, the Apostle declares that the whole armour of God is necessary. The first thing which a quickened soul learns is truth, a guileless heart, before God: he first gets faith, then righteousness, and next peace. The most miserable state is a quickened soul without peace. These several pieces of the armour spoken of here, we gather up by the way-we must then keep all together, what we get, we must have, as at the first. "Take the shield of faith," none of these could be

ones.

attained without faith. It is faith which apprehends the cross, so now it is not only faith that reconciles us to God, but faith to believe every truth, every promise,

CHINA.

of the evil one.

Such faith becomes hope, which carries us within the veil. The truth of God's Word should not be stated abstractly, but should be personally applied.

AS

THE BASKET OF FIRST FRUITS.
DEUTERONOMY XXVI.

S soon as the nation was settled in the promised inheritance, they were to fill this basket with all the fruit of the land, and to offer it before God's altar, confessing that all His promises had been made good.

He had taken them from their ruined and perishing estate, delivered them from the land of their bondage, and not left them till He had planted them in their goodly land of milk and honey, of which this offered basket was the witness and the sample, and then they were to rejoice in all the good the Lord had thus done to them. This was, as it were, the first offering of the nation, the first sacrifices laid on the altar of God. It was the full overflowing witness of His own mighty acts in their behalf. It was the nation telling the Lord what He had done to them, and done for them, and their joy in all this, while it was His praise. Sacrifices and services might fill the house of God afterwards, but this was the first offering in the sanctuary, and so, in some sense, was it the sweetest, for it told the blessed God of His own doings. It did not so much express the obedience of the nation, as the goodness and truth of the nation's Lord. And so should it be with us, let us give our God the same overflowing basket, let us offer to Him the same witness of His doings for us, let liberty in the conscience tell Him the value of the blood which He has given for us, let joy of heart tell Him of the value of the portion He has laid up for us, let affections fill and run forth at the remembrance of His love, and His salvation, and these will be our first and sweetest offerings. Ephesus lost her first love, and that spoiled all her service. The fruit in the basket had withered a little, for, in principle, it was to abide, in all its freshness, before the altar continually. May we rejoice in what our God has done for us, maintain our first love, keep the basket filled with its fresh first fruits, before the Lord. Whatever else comes into the Temple, let that abide before the Lord continually.

J. G. B.

from an Oxford graduate, who has gone forth at his own expense to preach the Gospel in China :

I have decided at present, at least, to study neither theology nor medicine. I know that lay or unclerical Missionaries, so called, are very much looked down upon in China by their more regular brethren, and by the community at large; and I doubt not it is the same at home. If I thought four sessions at our Hall would be well-occupied time, I should readily come home, for the voyage is a most pleasant one, and full of interest in many ways. But from what I have seen

of the Chinese, and of Missionaries to the Chinese, my present opinion is that technical theological knowledge is of little or no nse. Of course it has great educational value, but then I have had as good an education already as most Missionaries have had. What is wanted is spiritual power, not mere theoretical acquaintance with the Word of God. In travelling in China, far from European protection, one always meets with difficulties and dangers which no amount of human foresight can obviate. The Chinese Government opposes us. The Chinese people hate and distrust us, and the English Government does all it can to keep Missionaries to the Free Ports. To whom, then, can we apply for help but to the Lord Himself, to Him who says He won't fail us? I believe I should get a greater personal knowledge of the Lord during four years' itinerant work in Quei Chow, than during the same period at home with my books in my study.

"Then again, as a matter of fact, the average period of residence of Missionaries in China is but a few years. So many either get tired of it, or fail in health. The further roughing it in the interior, in the intense heat of summer and the cold of winter, with Chinese food and Chinese accommodation, and long walks and rides. on Chinese roads, requires all the strength that most people have in their most robust days. Further, the younger I am the more easily I can assimilate myself to Chinese habits and hardships, and the less difficulty may I expect with Chinese. In the face of all this, dare I take five or six years off the period of my service? The sermons, &c., which we preach to the Chinese are such as we would be ashamed to address to a sharp Sunday school scholar; and, as far as my experience goes, the older the Missionary the simpler