DEUTERONOMY, Section 3 of 6. (Deut. 5 - 7).
C H Mackintosh

In Deuteronomy 5 we read, Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God
hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh
day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy
son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox nor thine
ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant
and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant
in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, through a
mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee
to keep the Sabbath day. (Vers. 12-15.)

Now, the reader can see, at a glance, the difference between the two passages. In
Exodus 20 the command to keep the Sabbath is grounded on creation. In
Deuteronomy 5 it is grounded on redemption without any allusion to creation, at all.
In short, the points of difference arise out of the distinct character of each book, and
are perfectly plain to every spiritual mind.

With regard to the institution of the Sabbath we must remember that it rests wholly
upon the direct authority of the word of God. Other commandments set forth plain
moral duties. Every man knows it to be morally wrong to kill or steal; but, as to the
observance of the Sabbath, no one could possibly recognise it as a duty had it not
been distinctly appointed by divine authority. Hence its immense importance and
interest. Both in our chapter, and in Exodus 20, it stands side by side with all those
great moral duties which are universally recognised by the human conscience.

And not only so; but we find, in various other scriptures, that the Sabbath is singled
out and presented, with special prominence, as a precious link between Jehovah and
Israel; a seal of His covenant with them; and a powerful test of their devotedness to
Him. Every one could recognise the moral wrong of theft and murder; only those who
loved Jehovah and His word would love and honour His Sabbath.

Thus, in Exodus 16, in connection with the giving of the manna, we read, "And it
came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for
one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said
unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy
Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will
seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you, to be kept until the morning.....
And Moses said Eat that to day; for to day is a Sabbath unto the Lord; to day ye shall
not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the
Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass,"—so little were they capable
of appreciating the high and holy privilege of keeping Jehovah's Sabbath—"that there
went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
and the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and
my laws" Their neglect of the Sabbath proved their moral condition to be all wrong-
proved them to be astray as to all the commandments and laws of God. The Sabbath
was the great touchstone, the measure and gauge of the real state of their hearts
toward Jehovah—"See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he
giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place; let
no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh
day." they found rest and food on the holy Sabbath.

Again, at the close of chapter 31, we have a very remarkable passage in proof of the
importance and interest attaching to the Sabbath, in the mind of Jehovah. A full
description of the tabernacle and its furniture had been given to Moses, and he was
about to receive the two tables of testimony from the hand of Jehovah; but, as if to
prove the prominent place which the holy Sabbath held in the divine mind, we read,
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak thou also unto the children of Israel,
saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you
throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify
you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that
defileth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul
shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the
seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work in the
Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall
keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual
covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days
the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed."
(Ex. 31: 12-17.)

Now, this is a very important passage. It proves, very distinctly, the abiding character
of the Sabbath. The terms in which it is spoken of are quite sufficient to show that it
was no mere temporary institution, "A sign between me and you, throughout your
generations"—"A perpetual covenant"—"a sign for ever."

Let the reader carefully mark these words. They prove, beyond all question, first, that
the Sabbath was for Israel. Secondly, that the Sabbath is, in the mind of God, a
permanent institution. It is needful to bear these things in mind, in order to avoid all
vagueness of thought, and looseness of expression on this deeply interesting subject.

The Sabbath was distinctly and exclusively for the Jewish nation. It is spoken of,
emphatically, as a sign between Jehovah and His people Israel. There is not the most
remote hint of its being intended for the Gentiles. We shall see, further on, that it is a
lovely type of the times of the restitution of all thing of which God has spoken by the
mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began; but this, in no wise, touches the
fact of its being an exclusively Jewish institution. There is not so much as a single
sentence of scripture to show that the Sabbath had any reference whatever to the
Gentiles.

Some would teach us that, inasmuch as we read of the Sabbath day, in Genesis 2, it
must, of necessity, have a wider range than the Jewish But let us turn to the passage,
and see what it says. "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had
made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And
God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from
all his work which God created and made."

This is simple enough. There is no mention here of man, at all. We are not told that
man rested on the seventh day. Men may infer, conclude or imagine that he did so;
but the second of Genesis says nothing about it. And not only so, but we look in vain
for any allusion to the Sabbath throughout the entire book of Genesis. The very first
notice we have of the Sabbath, in connection with man, is in Exodus 16, a passage
already quoted; and there we see, most distinctly, that it was given to Israel, as a
people in recognised covenant relationship with Jehovah. That they did not
understand or appreciate it is perfectly plain; that they never entered into it is equally
plain, according to Psalm 95 and Hebrews 4. But we are now speaking of what it was
in the mind of God; and He tells us it was a sign between Him and His people Israel;
and a powerful test of their moral condition, and of the state of their heart as to Him.
It was not only an integral part of the law as given by Moses to the congregation of
Israel, but it is specially referred to and singled out, again and again, as an institution
holding a very peculiar place in the mind of God.

Thus, in the book of the prophet Isaiah, we read, "Blessed is the man that doeth this,
and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it,
and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath
joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his
people; neither let the eunuch say, Behold I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto
the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take
hold of my covenant; even unto them will I give in mine house, and within my walls,
a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an
everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger,"—here, of
course, viewed in connection with Israel, as in Numbers 15 and other scriptures—
"that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be
his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of
my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in
my house of prayer, their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon
mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people."

Again, "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my
holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt
honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking
thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to
ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy
father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." (Isaiah 58: 13, 14.)

The foregoing quotations are amply sufficient to show the place which the Sabbath
holds, in the mind of God. It is needless to multiply passages; but there is just one to
which we must refer the reader, in connection with our present subject, namely,
Leviticus 23. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of
Israel, and say unto them, concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim
to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done; but
the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work
therein; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings." (Vers. 1-3.)

Here it stands at the head of all the feasts given in this marvellous chapter in which
we have foreshadowed the entire history of God's dealings with His people Israel. The
Sabbath is the expression of God's eternal rest into which it is His purpose yet to bring
His people, when all their toils and their trials and tribulations shall have passed
away—that blessed "Sabbath keeping," (sabbatismov") which "remaineth for the
people of God." In various ways, He sought to keep this glorious rest before the hearts
of His people; the seventh day, the seventh year, the year of jubilee—all these lovely
sabbatic seasons were designed to set forth that blessed time when Israel shall be
gathered back to their own beloved land, when the Sabbath shall be kept, in all its
deep, divine blessedness, as it never has been kept yet.

And this leads us, naturally, to the second point in connection with the Sabbath,
namely, its permanency. This is plainly proved by such expressions as, "perpetual" "a
Sign for ever"—"throughout your generations." Such words would never be applied to
any merely temporary institution. Thus it is, alas! that Israel never really kept the
Sabbath according to God; they never understood its meaning, never entered into its
blessedness, never drank into its spirit. They made it a badge of their own
righteousness; they boasted in it as a national institution, and used it for self-
exaltation; but they never celebrated it in communion with God.

We speak of the nation, as a whole. We doubt not there were precious souls who, in
secret, enjoyed the Sabbath, and entered into the thoughts of God about it. But, as a
nation, Israel never kept the Sabbath according to God. Hear what Isaiah says, "Bring
no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and
Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn
meeting." (Chap. 1: 13.)

Here we see that the precious and beautiful institution of the Sabbath which God had
given as a sign of His covenant with His people, had, in their hands, become a
positive abomination, perfectly intolerable to Him. And when we open the pages of
the New Testament, we find the leaders and heads of the Jewish people continually at
issue with our Lord Jesus Christ, in reference to the Sabbath. Look, for example, at
the opening verses of Luke 6. "And it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the
first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn,
and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certain of the Pharisees said unto them,
Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days? And Jesus answering
them, said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an
hungered, and they which were with him; how he went into the house of God, and did
take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not
lawful to eat, but for the priests alone? And he said unto them, That the Son of man is
Lord also of the Sabbath."

And, again, we read, "It came to pass also on another Sabbath, that he entered into the
synagogue, and taught; and there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the
scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that
they might find an accusation against him."—Only conceive an accusation for healing
a poor, afflicted fellow mortal!—"But he knew their thoughts,"—yes, He read their
hearts, through to their very centre—"and said to the man which had the withered
hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose, and stood forth. Then said
Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good,
or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? And looking round about upon them all, he
said unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he did so; and his hand was restored
whole as the other. And they were filled with madness; and communed one with
another what they might do to Jesus."

What an insight we have here into the hollowness and worthlessness of man's Sabbath
keeping! Those religious guides would rather let the disciples starve than have their
Sabbath interfered with. They would allow the man to carry his withered hand to the
grave, rather than have him healed on their Sabbath. Alas! alas! it was indeed their
Sabbath, and not God's. His rest could never comport with hunger and withered
hands. They had never read aright the record of David's act, in eating the shewbread.
They did not understand that legal institutions must give way in the presence of divine
grace meeting human need. Grace rises, in its magnificence, above all legal barriers,
and faith rejoices in its lustre; but mere religiousness is offended by the activities of
grace and the boldness of faith. The Pharisees did not see that the man with the
withered hand was a striking commentary upon the nation's moral condition, a living
proof of the fact that they were far away from God. If they were as they ought to be,
there would have been no withered hands to heal; but they were not; and hence their
Sabbath was an empty formality, a powerless, worthless ordinance, a hideous
anomaly, hateful to God, and utterly inconsistent with the condition of man.

Take another instance, in Luke 13. "And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on
the Sabbath"—Assuredly, the Sabbath was no day of rest to Him—"And, behold,
there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed
together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her
to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid
his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God."
Beautiful illustration of the work of grace in the soul, and the practical result, in every
case. All on whom Christ lays His blessed hands are "immediately made straight,'' and
enabled to glorify God.

But man's Sabbath was touched. "The ruler of the synagogue answered with
indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day." He was indignant at
the gracious work of healing, though quite indifferent as to the humiliating case of
infirmity—and he "said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to
work; in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day." How little
this poor hollow religionist knew that he was in the very presence of the Lord of the
true Sabbath! How utterly insensible he was to the moral inconsistency of attempting
to keep a, Sabbath while man's condition called aloud for divine work! "The Lord
then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite! doth not each one of you on the
Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And
ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo,
these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?"

What a withering rebuke! What an opening up of the hollowness and utter
wretchedness of their whole system of Judaism! Only think of the glaring incongruity
of a Sabbath and a daughter of Abraham bound by the cruel hand of Satan, for
eighteen years! There is nothing in all this world so blinding to the mind, so
hardening to the heart, so deadening to the conscience, so demoralising to the whole
being, as religion without Christ. Its deceiving and degrading power can only be
thoroughly judged in the light of the divine presence. For ought that the ruler of the
synagogue cared, that poor woman might have gone on to the end of her days, bowed
together, and unable to lift up herself. He would have been well content to let her go
on as a sad witness of the power of Satan, provided he could keep his Sabbath. His
religious indignation was excited, not by the power of Satan as seen in the woman's
condition, but by the power of Christ, as seen in her complete deliverance.

But the Lord gave him his answer. "And when be had said these things, all his
adversaries were ashamed;"—as well they might—"and all the people rejoiced for all
the glorious things that were done by Him." What a striking contrast! The advocates
of a powerless, heartless, worthless religion, unmasked and covered with shame and
confusion, on the one band; and, on the other, all the people rejoicing in the glorious
actings of the Son of God who had come into their midst to deliver them from the
crushing power of Satan, and fill their hearts with the joy of God's salvation, and their
mouths with His praise!

We must now ask the reader to turn to the gospel of John for further illustration of our
subject. We earnestly desire that this vexed question of the Sabbath should be
thoroughly examined in the light of scripture. We are convinced that there is very
much more involved in it than many professing Christians are aware.

At the opening of John 5 we are introduced to a scene strikingly indicative of Israel's
condition. We do not here attempt to go fully into the passage; we merely refer to it in
connection with the subject before us.

The pool of Bethesda, or "house of mercy"—while it was, undoubtedly, the
expression of the mercy of God toward His people,—afforded abundant evidence of
the miserable condition of man, in general, and of Israel, in particular. Its five porches
were thronged with "a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered,
waiting for the moving of the water." What a sample of the whole human family, and
of the nation of Israel! What a striking illustration of their moral and spiritual
condition, as viewed from a divine standpoint. "Blind, halt, withered;" such is man's
real state, if he only knew it.

But there was one man, in the midst of this impotent throng, so far gone, so feeble
and helpless, that the pool of Bethesda could not meet his case. "A certain man was
there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and
knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be
made whole?"—What grace and power in this question! It went far beyond the utmost
stretch of the impotent man's thoughts. He thought only of human help, or of his own
ability to get into the pool. He knew not that the speaker was above and beyond the
pool, with its occasional movement; beyond angelic ministry, beyond all human help
and efforts the possessor of all power in heaven and on earth. "The impotent man
answered him, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled, to put, me into the pool;
but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me." What a, true picture of all
those who are seeking salvation by ordinances! Each one doing the best he could for
himself. No care for others. No thought of helping them. "Jesus saith unto him, Rise,
take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up
his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath."

Here we have man's Sabbath again. It certainly was not God's Sabbath. The miserable
multitude gathered round the pool proved that God's full rest had not yet come—that
His glorious antitype of the Sabbath had not yet dawned on this sin-stricken earth.
When that bright day comes, there will be no blind, halt, and withered folk thronging
the porches of the pool of Bethesda. God's Sabbath and human misery are wholly
incompatible.

But it was man's Sabbath. It was no longer the seal of Jehovah's covenant with the
seed of Abraham—as it was once, and will be again—but the badge of man's self-
righteousness, "The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sabbath
day; it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed." It was, no doubt, lawful enough for him
to lie on that bed, week after week, month after month, year after year, while they
were going on with their empty, worthless, hollow attempt at Sabbath keeping. If they
had had one ray of spiritual light, they would have seen the flagrant inconsistency of
attempting to maintain their traditional notions respecting the Sabbath in the presence
of human misery, disease and degradation. But they were utterly blind; and hence
when the glorious fruits of Christ's ministry were being displayed, they had the
temerity to pronounce them unlawful.

Nor this only; but "therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him,
because he had done these things on the Sabbath day." What a, spectacle! Religious
people, yea the leaders and teachers of religion—the guides of the professed people of
God, seeking to slay the Lord of the Sabbath because He had made a man every whit
whole on the Sabbath day!

But mark our Lord's reply. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." This brief but
comprehensive statement gives us the root of the whole matter. It opens up to us the
real condition of mankind in general, and of Israel in particular; and, in the most
affecting manner, presents the grand secret of our Lord's life and ministry. Blessed be
His Name, He had not come into this world to rest. How could He rest—how could
He keep a Sabbath, in the midst of human need and misery? Ought not that impotent,
blind, halt, and withered multitude which thronged the porches of the pool of
Bethesda to have taught " the Jews" the folly of their notions about the Sabbath? For
what was that multitude but a sample of the condition of the nation of Israel, and of
the whole human family? And how could divine love rest in the midst of such a
condition of things? Utterly impossible. Love can only be a worker in a scene of sin
and sorrow. From the moment of man's fall, the Father had been working. Then the
Son appeared to carry on the work. And, now, the Holy Ghost is working. Work, and
not rest, is the divine order, in a world like this. "There remaineth therefore a rest to
the people of God."

The blessed Lord Jesus went about doing good, on the Sabbath day, as well as every
other day; and, finally, having accomplished the glorious work of redemption, He
spent the Sabbath in the grave, and rose on the first day of the week, as the First-
begotten from the dead, and Head of the new creation, in which all things are of God,
and to which, we may surely add, the question of "days and months, and times and
years" can have no possible application. No one who thoroughly understands the
meaning of death and resurrection could sanction, for a moment, the observance of
days. The death of Christ put an end to all that order of things; and His resurrection
introduces us into another sphere entirely where it is our high privilege to walk in the
light and power of those eternal realities which are ours in Christ, and which stand in
vivid contrast with the superstitious observances of a carnal and worldly
religiousness.

But here we approach a very interesting point in our subject, namely, the difference
between the Sabbath and the Lord's day, or first day of the week. These two are often
confounded. We frequently hear, from the lips of truly pious people, the phrase,
"Christian Sabbath," an expression nowhere to be found in the New Testament. It may
be that some who make use of it mean a right thing; but we should not only mean
right, but also seek to express ourselves according to the teaching of holy scripture.

We are persuaded that the enemy of God and of His Christ has had a great deal more
to do with the conventionalisms of Christendom than many of us are aware; and this it
is which makes the matter so very serious. The reader may perhaps feel disposed to
pronounce it mere! hair-splitting to find any fault with the term "Christian Sabbath."
But he may rest assured it is nothing of the sort; on the contrary, if he will only calmly
examine the matter in the light of the New Testament, he will find that it involves
questions not only interesting but also weighty and important. It is a common saying,
"There is nothing in a name;" but, in the matter now before us, there is much in a
name.

We have already remarked that our Lord spent the Sabbath in the grave. Is not this a
telling and deeply significant fact? We cannot doubt it. We read in it, at least, the
setting aside of the old condition of things, and the utter impossibility of keeping a
Sabbath in a world of sin and death. Love could not rest in a world like this; it could
only labour and die. This is the inscription which we read on the tomb where the Lord
of the Sabbath lay buried.

But what of the first day of the week? Is not it the Sabbath on a new footing—the
Christian Sabbath? It is never so called in the New Testament. There is not so much
as a hint of anything of the kind. If we look through the Acts of the Apostles, we shall
find the two days spoken of in the most distinct way. On the Sabbath, we find the
Jews assembled in their synagogues for the reading of the law and the prophets. On
the first day of the week, we find the Christians assembled to break bread. The two
days were as distinct as Judaism and Christianity; nor is there so much as a shadow of
scripture foundation for the idea that the Sabbath was merged in the first day of the
week. Where is there the slightest authority for the assertion that the Sabbath is
changed from the seventh day to the eighth, or first day of the week? Surely, if there
be any, nothing is easier than to produce it. But there is absolutely none.

And, be it remembered, that the Sabbath is not merely a seventh day, but the seventh
day. It is well to note this, inasmuch as some entertain the idea that provided a
seventh portion of time be given to rest, and the public ordinances of religion, it is
quite sufficient, and it does not matter what you call it; and thus different nations and
different religious systems have their Sabbath day. But this can never satisfy any one
who desires to be taught exclusively by scripture. The Sabbath of Eden was the
seventh day. The Sabbath for Israel was the seventh day. But the eighth day leads our
thoughts onward into eternity: and, in the New Testament, it is called 'the first day of
the week" as indicating the beginning of that new order of things of which the cross is
the imperishable foundation, and a risen Christ the glorious Head and Centre. To call
this day the "Christian Sabbath" is simply to confound things earthly and heavenly. It
is to bring the Christian down from his elevated position as associated with a risen
and glorified Head in the heavens, and occupy him with the superstitious observance
of days, the very thing which made the blessed apostle stand in doubt of the
assemblies in Galatia.

In short, the more deeply we ponder the phrase "Christian Sabbath," the more we are
convinced that its tendency is, like many other formularies of Christendom, to rob the
Christian of all those grand distinctive truths of the New Testament which mark off
the church of God from all that went before, and all that is to follow after. The
church, though on the earth, is not of this world, even as Christ is not of this world. It
is heavenly in its origin, heavenly in its character, heavenly in its principles, walk and
hope. It stands between the cross and the glory. The boundaries of its existence on
earth are the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost came down to form it, and the
coming of Christ to receive it to Himself.

Nothing can be more strongly marked than this; and, hence, for any one to attempt to
enjoin upon the church of God the legal or superstitious observance of "days and
months, and times and years," is to falsify the entire Christian position; mar the
integrity of divine revelation, and rob the Christian of the place and portion which
belong to him, through the infinite grace of God, and the accomplished atonement of
Christ.

Does the reader deem this statement unwarrantably strong? If so, let him ponder the
following splendid passage from Paul's Epistle to the Colossians—a passage which
ought to be written in letters of gold. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk ye in him; rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye
have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil [or
make a prey of] you through philosophy and vain deceit"—mark the combination! not
very flattering to philosophy—"after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the
world, and not after Christ, For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead
[Qeo;th", deity] bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all
principality and power."—What more can we possibly want? In whom also ye are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the
sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Buried with him in baptism, wherein
also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised
him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses;
blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to
us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

Magnificent victory! A victory gained single handed—gained for us! Universal and
eternal homage to His peerless Name! What remains? "Let no man therefore judge
you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the
Sabbath: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" What can
one who is complete and accepted in a risen and glorified Christ have to do with
meats, drinks or holy days? What can philosophy, tradition or human religiousness do
for him? What can passing shadows add to one who has grasped, by faith, the eternal
substance? Surely nothing; and hence the blessed apostle proceeds, "Let no man
beguile you of your reward, in a voluntary humility, and worshipping of angels,
intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly
mind, and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having
nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
Wherefore, if we be dead with Christ, from the rudiments of the world, why, as
though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances"—such as "touch not;" this
"taste not,"—that—"handle not"—the other—which all are to perish with the using,
after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of
wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour,
to the satisfying of the flesh."—That is, not giving the measure of honour to the body
which is due to it as God's vessel, but puffing up the flesh with religious pride, fed by
a hollow and worthless sanctimoniousness. (Col. 2: 6-23.)

We do not dare to offer any apology for this lengthened quotation. An apology for
quoting scripture! Far be the thought! It is not possible for any one to understand this
marvellous passage and not have a complete settlement, not only of the Sabbath
question, but also of that entire system of things with which this question stands
connected. The Christian, who understands his position, is done, for ever, with all
questions of meats and drinks, days and months and times and years. He knows
nothing of holy seasons and holy places. He is dead with Christ from the rudiments of
the world, and, as such, is delivered from all the ordinances of a traditional religion.
He belongs to heaven, where new moons, holy days and Sabbaths have no place. He is
in the new creation, where all things are of God; and hence he can see no moral force
in such words as " touch not; taste not; handle not." They have no possible application
to him. He lives in a region where the clouds, vapours and mists of monasticism and
asceticism are never seen. He has given up all the worthless forms of mere fleshly
pietism, and got, in exchange, the solid realities of Christian life. His ear has been
opened to hear, and his heart to understand the powerful exhortation of the inspired
apostle, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on
things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When
Christ, our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify
therefore your members which are upon the earth."

Here we have unfolded before our eyes some of the glories of true, practical, vital
Christianity, in striking contrast with all the barren and dreary forms of carnal and
worldly religiousness. Christian life does not consist in the observance of certain
rules, commandments or traditions of men. It is a divine reality. It is Christ in the
heart, and Christ reproduced in the daily life, by the power of the Holy Ghost. It is the
new man, formed on the model of Christ Himself, and displaying itself in all the most
minute details of our daily history, in the family, in the business, in all our intercourse
with our fellow men, in our temper, spirit, style, deportment, all. It is not a matter of
mere profession, or of dogma, or of opinion, or of sentiment; it is an unmistakable,
living reality. It is the kingdom of God, set up in the heart, asserting its blessed sway
over the whole moral being, and shedding its genial influence upon the entire sphere
in which we are called to move, from day to day. It is the Christian walking in the
blessed footsteps of Him who went about doing good; meeting, so far as in him lies,
every form of human need; living not for himself but for others; finding his delight in
serving and giving; ready to soothe and sympathise wherever he finds a crushed spirit
or a bereaved and desolate heart.

This is Christianity. And oh! how it differs from all the forms in which legality and
superstition clothe themselves! How different from the unintelligent and unmeaning
observance of days, and months, and times and years, abstaining from meats,
forbidding to marry, and such-like! How different from the vapourings of the mystic,
the gloom of the ascetic, and the austerities of the monk! How totally different from
all these! Yes, reader; and we may add, how different from the unsightly union of
high profession and low practice; lofty truths held in the intellect, professed, taught
and discussed, and worldliness, self-indulgence, and unsubduedness! The Christianity
of the New Testament differs alike from all these things. It is the divine, the heavenly,
and the spiritual, displayed amid the human, the earthly and the natural. May it be the
holy purpose of the writer and the reader of these lines to be satisfied with nothing
short of that morally glorious Christianity revealed in the pages of the New
Testament!

It is needless, we trust, to add more on the question of the Sabbath. If the reader has,
at all, seized the import of those scriptures which have passed before us, he will have
little difficulty in seeing the place which the Sabbath holds, in the dispensational
ways of God. He will see that it has direct reference to Israel and the earth—that it
was a sign of the covenant between Jehovah and His earthly people, and a powerful
test of their moral condition.

Furthermore, he will see that Israel never really kept the Sabbath, never understood its
import, never appreciated its value. This was made manifest in the life, ministry and
death of our Lord Jesus Christ who performed many of His works of healing on the
Sabbath day, and, at the end, spent that day in the tomb.

Finally, he will clearly understand the difference between the Jewish Sabbath and the
first day of the week, or the Lord's day; that the latter is never once called the
Sabbath, in the New Testament; but, on the contrary, is constantly presented in its
own proper distinctness; it is not the Sabbath changed or transferred, but a new day
altogether, having its own special basis and its own peculiar range of thought, leaving
the Sabbath wholly untouched, as a suspended institution, to be resumed, by-and-by,
when the seed of Abraham shall be restored to their own land. (See Ezek 46: 1, 12.)

But we cannot, happily, turn from this interesting subject without a few words on the
place assigned, in the New Testament, to the Lord's day, or first day of the week.
Though it is not the Sabbath; and though it has nothing to do with holy days, or new
moons, or "days and months, and times and years;" yet it has its own unique place in
Christianity, as is evident from manifold passages in the scriptures of the New
Testament.

Our Lord rose from the dead, on that day. He met His disciples, again and again, on
that day. The apostle and the brethren at Troas came together to break bread on that
day. (Acts 20: 7.) The apostle instructs the Corinthians, and all that, in every place,
call on the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to lay by their offerings on that day; thus
teaching us, distinctly, that the first day of the week was the special day for the Lord's
people to assemble for the Lord's Supper, and the worship, communion and ministry
connected with that most precious institution. The blessed Apostle John expressly
tells us that he was in the Spirit, on that day, and received that marvellous revelation
which closes the Divine Volume.*
{*Some are of opinion that the expression, "On the Lord's day" ought to be rendered,
"Of the day of the Lord," meaning that the apostle was in the spirit of that day when
our Lord Christ shall take to Himself His great power and reign. But to this view there
are two grave objections. In the first place, the words th/' kuriakh/' hJmevra, rendered,
in Revelation 1: 10, "the Lord's day," are quite distinct from hj hJmevra kurivou, in 1
Thessalonians 5: 2; 2 Thessalonians 2: 2; 2 Peter 3: 10, properly rendered, "The day of
the Lord." This we consider a very weighty objection, and one quite sufficient to settle
the question. But, in addition to this, we have the argument based on the fact that by
far the greater portion of the book of Revelation is occupied, not with "the day of the
Lord" but with events prior thereto. Hence, therefore, we feel persuaded that "the
Lord's day" and "the first day of the week" are identical; and this we deem a very
important fact as proving that that day has a very special place in the word of God—a
place which every intelligent Christian will thankfully own.}

Thus then, we have a body of scripture evidence before us amply sufficient to prove
to every pious mind that the Lord's day must not be reduced to the level of ordinary
days. It is, to the true Christian, neither the Jewish Sabbath, on the one hand, nor the
Gentile Sunday, on the other; but the Lord's day, on which His people gladly and
thankfully assemble round His Table, to keep that precious feast by which they show
forth His death, until He come.

Now, it is needless to say that there is not a shade of legal bondage or of superstition
connected with the first day of the week. To say so, or to think so, would be to deny
the entire circle of truths with which that day stands connected. We have no direct
commandment respecting the observance of the day; but the passages already referred
to are amply sufficient, for every spiritual mind; and, further, we may say that the
instincts of the divine nature would lead every true Christian to honour and love the
Lord's day, and to set it apart, in the most reverent manner, for the worship and
service of God. The very thought of any one, professing to love Christ, engaging in
business, or unnecessary travelling, on the Lord's day, would, in our judgement, be
revolting to every pious feeling. We believe it to be a hallowed privilege to retire, as
much as possible, from all the distractions of natural things, and to devote the hours
of the Lord's day to Himself and to His service.

It will, perhaps be said that the Christian ought to devote every day to the Lord. Most
surely; we are the Lord's, in the very fullest and highest sense. All we have and all we
are belongs to Him. This we fully, gladly, own. We are called to do everything in His
Name, and to His glory. It is our high privilege to buy and sell, eat and drink, yea, to
carry on all our business, under His eye and in the fear and love of His holy Name.
We should not put our hand to anything, on any day in the week, on which we could
not, with the fullest confidence, ask the Lord's blessing.

All this is most fully admitted. Every true Christian joyfully owns it. But, at the same
time, we deem it Impossible to read the New Testament and not see that the Lord's
day gets a unique place; that it is marked off for us, in the most distinct way; that it
has a significance and an importance which cannot, with justice, be claimed for any
other day in the week. Indeed so fully are we convinced of the truth of all this, that,
even though it were not the law of England, that the Lord's day should be observed,
we should deem it to be both our sacred duty and holy privilege to abstain from all
business engagements, save such as were absolutely unavoidable.

Thanks be to God, it is the law of England that the Lord's day should be observed.
This is a signal mercy to all who love the day for the Lord's sake. We cannot but own
His great goodness in having wrested the day from the covetous grasp of the world,
and bestowed it upon His people and His servants to be devoted to His worship and to
His work.

What a boon is the Lord's day, with its profound retirement from worldly things! What
should we do without it? What a blessed break in upon the week's toil! How
refreshing its exercises to the spiritual mind! How precious the assembly round the
Lord's Table to remember Him, to show forth His death, and celebrate His praise!
How delightful the varied services of the Lord's day, whether those of the evangelist,
the pastor, the teacher, the Sunday-school worker, or the tract distributor! What
human language can adequately set forth the value and interest of all these things?
True it is that the Lord's day is anything but a day of bodily rest to His servants;
indeed they are often more fatigued on that day than on any other day of the week.
But oh! it is a blessed fatigue; a delightful fatigue; a fatigue which will meet its bright
reward in the rest that remains for the people of God.

Once more, then, beloved Christian reader, let us lift up our hearts in a note of praise
to our God for the blessed boon of the Lord's day. May He continue it to His church
until He come! May He countervail, by His Almighty power, every effort of the
infidel and the atheist to remove the barriers which English law has erected around
the Lord's day. Truly it will be a sad day for England when those barriers are
removed.

It may, perhaps, be said, by some that the Jewish Sabbath is done away, and is,
therefore, no longer binding. A large number of professing Christians have taken this
ground, and pleaded for the Opening of the parks and places of public recreation on
the Sunday. Alas! it is easily seen where such people are drifting to, and what they are
seeking. They would set aside the law, in order to procure a licence for fleshly
indulgence. They do not understand that the only way in which any one can be free
from the law is by being dead to it; and, if dead to the law, we are also of blessed
necessity, dead to sin, and dead to the world.

This makes it a different matter altogether. The Christian is, thank God, free from the
law; but, if he is, it is not that he may amuse and indulge himself, on the Lord's day,
or any other day; but that he may live to God. "I, through law, am dead to law; that I
might live unto God." This is Christian ground; and it can only be occupied by those
who are truly born of God. The world cannot understand it; neither can they
understand the holy privileges and spiritual exercises of the Lord's day.

All this is true; but, at the same time, we are thoroughly convinced that were England
to remove the barriers which surround the Lord's day, it would afford a melancholy
proof of her abandonment of that profession of religion which has, so long
characterised her, as a nation, and of her drifting away in the direction of infidelity
and atheism. We must not lose sight of the weighty fact that England has taken the
ground of being a Christian nation—a nation professing to be governed by the word
of God. She is therefore much more responsible than those nations wrapped in the
dark shades of heathenism. We believe that nations, like individuals, will be held
responsible for the profession they make; and, hence, those nations which profess and
call themselves Christian shall be judged not merely by the light of creation, nor by
the law of Moses, but by the full-orbed light of that Christianity which they profess—
by all the truth contained within the covers of that blessed book which they possess,
and in which they make their boast. The heathen' shall be judged on the ground Of
creation; the Jew, on the ground of the law; the nominal Christian, on the ground of
the truth of Christianity.

Now this grave fact renders the position of England and all other professing Christian
nations most serious. God will, most assuredly, deal with them on the ground of their
profession. It is of no use to say they do not understand what they profess; for why
profess what they do not understand and believe? The fact is they profess to
understand and believe; and by this fact they shall be judged. They make their boast
in this familiar sentence that " The Bible, and the Bible alone is the religion of
Protestants."

If this be so, how solemn is the thought of England judged by the standard of an open
Bible! 'What will be her judgement?—what her end? Let all whom it may concern
ponder the appalling answer.

We must, now, turn from the deeply interesting subject of the Sabbath and the Lord's
day, and draw this section to a close by quoting for the reader the remarkable
paragraph with which our chapter ends. It does not call for any lengthened comment,
but we deem it profitable, in these "Notes on Deuteronomy," to furnish the reader
with very full quotations from the book itself, in order that he may have before him
the very words of the Holy Ghost, without even the trouble of laying aside the volume
which he holds in his hand.

Having laid before the people the ten commandments, the law-giver proceeds to
remind them of the solemn circumstances which accompanied the giving of the law,
together with their own feelings and utterances, on the occasion.

"These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of
the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and he added no
more; and he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me. And it
came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness—for the
mountain did burn with fire—that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your
tribes, and your elders; and ye said, Behold, the Lord our God hath showed us his
glory, and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire; we
have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth. Now therefore why
should we die? for this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our
God any more, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh that hath heard the
voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have and lived? Go
thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say; and speak thou unto us all that
the Lord our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it. And the Lord
heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the Lord said unto me, I
have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee;
they have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such an heart in them,
that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be
well with them, and with their children for ever! Go say to them, Get you into your
tents again; but as for thee, stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the
commandments, and the statutes, and the judgements, which thou shalt teach them,
that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it. Ye shall observe to
do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you; ye shall not turn aside to the
right hand or to the left. Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath
commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may
prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess."

Here the grand principle of the book of Deuteronomy shines out with uncommon
lustre. It is embodied in those touching and forcible words which form the very heart's
core of the splendid passage just quoted. "O that there were such an heart in them,
that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well
with them, and with their children for ever!"

Precious words! They set before us, most blessedly, the secret spring of that life
which we, as Christians are called to live, from day to day—the life of simple,
implicit and unqualified obedience, namely, a heart fearing the Lord—fearing Him,
not in a servile spirit, but with all that deep, true, adoring love which the Holy Ghost
sheds abroad in our hearts. It is this that delights the heart of our loving Father. His
word to us is, "My son, give me thine heart." Where the heart is given, all follows, in
lovely moral order. A loving heart finds its very deepest joy in obeying all God's
commandments; and nothing is of any value to God but what springs from a loving
heart. The heart is the source of all the issues of life; and, hence, when it is governed
by the love of God there is a loving response to all His commandments. We love His
commandments because we love Him. Every word of His is precious to the heart that
loves Him. Every precept, every statute, every judgement, in a word, His whole law is
loved, reverenced, and obeyed, because it has His Name, and His authority attached to
it.

The reader will find, in Psalm 119, an uncommonly fine illustration of the special
point now before us—a most striking example of one who blessedly answered to the
words quoted above;—"O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear
me, and keep all my commandments always." It is the lovely breathing of a soul who
found its deep, unfailing, constant delight in the law of God. There are no less than
one hundred and seventy allusions to that precious law, under some one title or
another. We find scattered along the surface of this marvellous psalm, in rich
profusion, such gems as the following.

"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." "I have rejoiced
in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches." "I will meditate in thy
precepts, and have respect unto thy ways." "I will delight myself in thy statutes; I will
not forget thy word." "My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy
judgements at all times." "Thy testimonies also are my delight, and my counsellors." "I
have stuck unto Thy testimonies." "Behold, I have longed after thy precepts." "I trust
in thy word." "I have hoped in thy judgements." "I seek; thy precepts." "I will delight
myself in thy commandments which I have loved." "I remembered thy judgements."
Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage." "I turned my feet
unto thy testimonies." "I have believed thy commandments." "The law of thy mouth is
better unto me than thousands of gold and silver." "I have hoped in thy word." "Thy
law is my delight." "Mine! eyes fail for thy word." "All thy commandments are
faithful." "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.'' "I will never forget thy
precepts." "I have sought thy precepts." "I will consider thy testimonies." "Thy
commandment is exceeding broad." "O how love I thy law; it is my meditation all the
day." "How sweet are thy words unto my taste? yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth." "Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever; for they are The
rejoicing of my heart." "I Will have respect unto thy statutes continually" "I love thy
commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold." "I esteem all thy precepts
concerning all things to be right." "Thy testimonies are wonderful." "I opened my
mouth, and panted, for I longed for Thy commandments." "Upright are thy
judgements." "Thy testimonies..... are righteous, and very faithful." "Thy word is very
pure." "Thy law is the truth." "The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting."
"All thy commandments are truth." "Thy word is true from the beginning; and every
one of thy righteous judgements endureth for ever: "My heart standeth in awe of Thy
word." "I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil." "Great peace have they
that love thy law." "My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly."
"I have chosen thy precepts." "Thy law is my delight."

Truly it does the heart good, and refreshes the spirit, to transcribe such utterances as
the foregoing, many of which are the suited utterances of our Lord Himself, in the
days of His flesh. He ever lived upon the word. It was the food of His soul; the
authority of His path, the material of His ministry. By it He vanquished Satan; by it
He silenced Sadducees, Pharisees and Herodians. By it He taught His disciples. To it
He commended His servants, as He was about to ascend into the heavens.

How important is all this for us! How intensely interesting! How deeply practical!
What a place it gives the holy scriptures! For we remember that it is, in very deed, the
blessed Volume of inspiration which is brought before us in all those golden
sentences culled from Psalm 119. How strengthening, refreshing and encouraging for
us to mark the way in which our Lord uses the holy scriptures, at all times, the place
He gives them, and the dignity He puts upon them! He appeals to them, on all
occasions, as a divine authority, from which there can be no appeal. He, though
Himself as God over all, the Author of the Volume, having taken His place as man, on
the earth, sets forth, with all possible plainness, what is man's bounden duty and high
privilege, namely, to live by the word of God—to bow down, in reverent subjection,
to its divine authority.

And have we not here a very complete answer to the oft-raised question of infidelity,
"How do we know that the Bible is the word of God?" If indeed we believe in Christ;
if we own Him to be the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh, very God and very
man, we cannot fail to see the moral force of the fact that this divine Person
constantly appeals to the scriptures—to Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms, as to a
divine standard. Did He not know them to be the word of God? Undoubtedly. As God,
He had given them; as Man, He received them, lived by them, and owned their
paramount authority, in all things.

What a weighty fact is here for the professing church! What a withering rebuke to all
those so called Christian doctors and writers who have presumed to tamper with the
grand fundamental truth of the plenary inspiration of the holy scriptures in general,
and of the five books of Moses in particular! How terrible to think of the professed
teachers of the church of God daring to designate as spurious, writings which our
Lord and Master received and owned as divine!

And yet we are told, and we are expected to believe that things are improving! Alas!
alas! it is a miserable delusion. The degrading absurdities of ritualism, and the
blasphemous reasonings of infidelity are rapidly increasing around us; and where
these influences are not actually dominant, we observe, for the most part, a cold
indifference, carnal ease, self indulgence, and worldliness—anything and everything,
in short, but the evidence of improvement. If people are not led away by infidelity, on
the one hand, or by ritualism, on the other, it is, for the most part, owing to the fact
that they are too much occupied with pleasure and gain to think of anything else. And
as to the religion of the day, if you subtract money and music, you will have a
lamentably trifling balance.

Hence, therefore, it is impossible to shake off the conviction that the combined
testimony of observation and experience is directly opposed to the notion that things
are improving. Indeed, for any one, in the face of such an array of evidence to the
contrary, to cling to such a theory can only be regarded as the fruit of a most
unaccountable credulity.

But, perhaps, some may feel disposed to say that we must not judge by the sight of
our eyes; we must be hopeful. True, provided only we have a divine warrant for our
hopefulness. If a single line of scripture can be produced to prove that the present
system of things is to be marked by gradual improvement, religiously, politically,
morally, or socially, then, by all means, be hopeful. Yes; hope against hope. A single
clause of inspiration is quite sufficient to form the basis of a hope which will lift the
heart above the very darkest and most depressing surroundings.

But where is such a clause to be found? Simply, nowhere. The testimony of the Bible,
from cover to cover; the distinct teaching of holy scripture, from beginning to end; the
voices of prophets and apostles, in unbroken harmony—all, without a single divergent
note, go to prove, with a force and clearness perfectly unanswerable, that the present
condition of things, so far from gradually improving, will grow rapidly worse; that ere
the bright beams of millennial glory can gladden this groaning earth, the sword of
judgement must do its appalling work. To quote the passages, in proof of our
assertion, would literally fill a volume; it would simply be to transcribe a large
portion of the prophetic scriptures of the Old and New Testament.

This, of course, we do not attempt. There is no need. The reader has his Bible before
him. Let him search it diligently. Let him lay aside all his preconceived ideas, all the
conventionalisms of Christendom, all the ordinary phraseology of the religious world,
all the dogmas of the schools of divinity, and come, with the simplicity of a little
child, to the pure fountain of holy scripture, and drink in its heavenly teaching. If he
will only do this, he will rise from the study with the clear and settled conviction that
the world will, most assuredly, not be converted by the means now in operation—that
it is not the gospel of peace but the besom of destruction that shall prepare the earth
for glory.

Is it, then, that we deny the good that is being done? Are we insensible to it? Far be
the thought! We heartily bless God for every atom of it. We rejoice in every effort put
forth to spread the precious gospel of the grace of God; we render thanks for every
soul gathered within the blessed circle of God's salvation. We delight to think of
eighty-five millions of Bibles scattered over the earth. What human mind can
calculate the results of all these, yea, the results of a single copy? We earnestly wish
God speed to every true-hearted missionary who goes forth with the glad tidings of
salvation, whether into the lanes and court-yards of London, or to the most distant
parts of the earth.

But, admitting all this, as we most heartily do, we nevertheless do not believe in the
conversion of the world by the means now in operation. Scripture tells us that it is
when the divine judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn
righteousness. This one clause of inspiration ought to be sufficient to prove that it is
not by the gospel that the world is to be converted, and there are hundreds of clauses
which speak the same language and teach the same truth. It is not by grace, but by
judgement, that the inhabitants of the world shall learn righteousness.

What then is the object of the gospel If it be not to convert the world, for what
purpose is it preached? The Apostle James, in his address at the memorable council at
Jerusalem, gives an answer, direct and conclusive, to the question. He says, "Simeon
hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles." For what? To convert them
all? The very reverse: "To take out of them a people for his name." Nothing can be
more distinct than this It sets before us that which ought to be the grand object of all
missionary effort—that which every divinely sent and divinely taught missionary will
keep before his mind, in all his blessed labours. It is "to take out a people for his
name."

How important to remember this! How needful to have ever before us a true object, in
all our work! Of what possible use can it be to work for a false object? Is it not much
better to work with a direct view to what God is doing? Will it cripple the
missionary's energies or clip his wings to keep before his eyes the divine purpose in
his work? Surely not. Take the case of two missionaries going forth to some distant
mission-field; the one has for his object the conversion of the world; the other, the
gathering out of a people. Will the latter, by reason of his object, be less devoted, less
energetic, less enthusiastic than the former? We cannot believe it; on the contrary, the
very fact of his being in the current of the divine mind will impart stability and
consistency to his work; and, at the same time, encourage his heart in the face of the
difficulties and hindrances which surround him.

But, however this may be, it is perfectly plain that the apostles of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ had no such object, in going forth to their work, as the
conversion of the world. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature; he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not
shall be damned."

This was to the twelve. The world was to be their sphere. The aspect of their message
was unto every creature; the application, to him that believeth. It was, pre-eminently,
an individual thing. The conversion of the whole world was not to be their object; that
will be effected by a different agency altogether, when God's present action by the
gospel shall have resulted in the gathering out of a people for the heavens.* The Holy
Ghost came down, on the day of Pentecost, not to convert the world, but to "convict"
(ejlegvxei) it, or demonstrate its guilt, in having rejected the Son of God.** The effect
of His presence was to prove the world guilty; and as to the grand object of His
mission, it was to form a body composed of believers from amongst both Jews and
Gentiles. With this He has been occupied for the last eighteen hundred years. This is
"the mystery" of which the Apostle Paul was made a minister, and which he unfolds,
so fully and blessedly, in his epistle to the Ephesians. It is impossible for any one to
understand the truth set forth in this marvellous document, and not see that the
conversion of the world and the formation of the body of Christ are two totally
different things which could not possibly go on together.
{*We would commend to the reader's attention Psalm 47. It is one of a large class of
passages which prove that the blessing of the nations is consequent upon Israel's
restoration. "God be merciful unto us [Israel] and bless us, and cause his face to shine
upon us, that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all
nations.... God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him." There
could not be a more lovely or forcible proof of the fact that it is Israel, and not the
church, that will be used for the blessing of the nations.}
{**The application of John 16: 8-11 to the Spirit's work in the individual is, in our
judgement, a serious mistake. It refers to the effect of His presence on earth, in
reference to the world as a whole. His work in the soul is a precious truth, we need
hardly say; but it is not the truth taught in this passage.}

Let the reader ponder the following beautiful passage: "For this cause I Paul, the
prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the
grace of God, which is given me to you-ward; how that by revelation he made known
unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made
known unto the sons of men"—not made known in the scriptures of the Old
Testament; nor revealed to the Old Testament saints or prophets—"as it is now
revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets"—that is, to the New Testament
prophets—"by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same
body, and partakers of his Promise in Christ by the gospel: whereof I was made a
minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual
working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace
given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and
to make all men see, what is the dispensation [oijkonomiva] of the mystery, which from
the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus
Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies
might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." (Eph. 3: 1-10)

Take another passage from the epistle to the Colossians. "If ye continue in the faith
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye
have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven;
whereof I Paul am made a minister; who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill
up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake,
which is the church; whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of
God which is given to me for you, to complete the word of God; even the mystery
which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we
preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; whereunto I also labour, striving according
to his working, which worketh in me mightily." (Col. 1: 23-29.)

From these, and numerous other passages, the reader may see the special object of
Paul's ministry. Assuredly, he had no such thought in his mind as the conversion of
the world. True, he preached the gospel, in all its depth, fullness and power—
preached it "from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum"—"preached among the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;" but with no thought of converting the
world. He knew better. He knew and taught that the world was ripening for
judgement—yes, ripening rapidly; that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse;" that, "In the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their
conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain
from meats, which God had created to be received with thanksgiving of them which
believe and know the truth."

And, further still, this faithful and divinely inspired witness taught that "in the last
days"—far in advance of "the latter times"—"perilous [or difficult] times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady,
high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of
godliness, but denying the power thereof." (Compare 1 Tim. 4: 1-3 with 2 Tim. 3: 1-5)

What a picture! It brings us back to the close of the first of Romans, where the same
inspired pen portrays for us the dark forms of heathenism; but with this terrible
difference that in 2 Timothy it is not heathenism but nominal Christianity—"a form of
godliness." And is this to be the end of the present condition of things? Is this the
converted world of which we hear so much? Alas! alas! there are false prophets
abroad. There are those who cry Peace, peace, when there is no peace. There are
those who attempt to daub the crumbling walls of Christendom with untempered
mortar.

But it will not do. Judgement is at the door. The professing church has utterly,
shamefully failed; she has grievously departed from the word of God, and revolted
from the authority of her Lord. There is not a single ray of hope for Christendom. It is
the darkest moral blot in the wide universe of God, or on the page of history. The
same blessed apostle from whose writings we have already so largely quoted, tells us
that the mystery of iniquity doth already work;" hence it has been working now for
over eighteen centuries. "Only he that now hindereth will hinder until he be taken out
of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume
with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even
him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying
wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because
they received not the love of the troth, that they might he 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 in unrighteousness." (2 Thess.
2: 7-12.)

How awful is the doom of Christendom! Strong delusion! Dark damnation! And all
this in the face of the dreams of those false prophets who talk to the people about "the
bright side of things." Thank God, there is a bright side for all those who belong to
Christ. To them the apostle can speak in bright and cheering accents. "We are bound
to give thanks alway to God for yon, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and
belief of the truth: whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Thess. 2: 13, 14.)

Here we have, most surely, the bright side of things—the bright and blessed hope of
the church of (God—the hope of seeing "the bright and morning Star." All rightly
instructed Christians are on the look out, not for an improved or a converted world,
but for their coming Lord and Saviour who has gone to prepare a place for them in the
Father's house; and is coming again to receive them to Himself, that where He is,
there they may be also. This is His own sweet promise, which may be fulfilled at any
moment. He only waits, as Peter tells us, in long suffering mercy, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But when the last member shall
be incorporated, by the Holy Ghost, into the blessed body of Christ, then shall the
voice of the archangel and the trump of God summon all the redeemed, from the
beginning, to meet their descending Lord, in the air, to be for ever with Him.

This is the true and proper hope of the church of God—a hope which He would have
ever shining down; into the hearts of all His beloved people, in its purifying and
elevating power. Of this blessed hope the enemy has succeeded in robbing a large
number of the Lord's people. Indeed, for centuries it was well nigh blotted out from
the church's horizon; and it has only been partially recovered within the last fifty
years. And alas! how partially! Where do we hear of it, throughout the length and
breadth of the professing church? Do the pulpits of Christendom ring with the joyful
sound, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh"? Far from it. Even the few beloved servants
of Christ who are looking for His coming, hardly dare to preach it, because they fear
it would be utterly rejected. And so it would. We are thoroughly persuaded that, in the
vast majority of cases, men who should venture to preach the glorious truth that the
Lord is coming for His church, would speedily have to vacate their pulpits.

What a solemn and striking proof of Satan's blinding power! He has robbed the
church of divinely given hope; and, instead thereof, he has given her a delusion—a
lie. Instead of looking out for "The bright and morning Star," he has set her looking
for a converted world—a millennium without Christ. He has succeeded in casting
such a haze over the future, that the church has completely lost bearings. She does not
know where she is. She is like a vessel tossed on the stormy ocean, having neither
compass nor rudder, seeing neither sun nor stars. All is darkness and confusion.

And how is this? Simply because the church has lost sight of the pure and precious
word of her Lord and has accepted, instead, those bewildering creeds confessions of
men which so mar and mutilate the truth of God, that Christians seem utterly at sea as
to their proper standing and their proper hope.

And yet they have the Bible in their hands. True but so had the Jews, and yet they
rejected the blessed One who is the great theme of the Bible from beginning to end.
This was the moral inconsistency with which our Lord charged them, in John "Ye
search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they
which testify of me; ye will not come to me, that ye might have life."*
{*the word ejreuna'te may be either imperative or indicative but the context, we
judge, demands the latter. They had scriptures; they were read in their synagogues
every day; they professed to believe that in them they had life; they testified of Him;
and yet they would not come Him. Here was the flagrant inconsistency. Now if
ejreuna'te be taken as a command, the whole force of the passage is lost. Need we
remind the reader that there are plenty of arguments and inducements leading us to
search the scriptures, without appealing to what we believe to be an inaccurate
rendering of John 5: 39}

And why was this? Simply because their minds were blinded by religious prejudice.
They were under the influence of the doctrines and commandments of men. Hence,
although they had the scriptures, and boasted of having them, they were as ignorant of
them, and as little governed by them as the poor dark heathen around them. It is one
thing to have the Bible in our hands, in our homes, and in our assemblies, and quite
another thing to have the truths of the Bible acting on our hearts and consciences, and
shining in our lives.

Take, for instance, the great subject now before us, and which has led us into this very
lengthened digression. Can anything be more plainly taught in the New Testament
than this, namely, that the end of the present condition of things will be terrible
apostasy from the truth, and open rebellion against God and the Lamb? The Gospels,
the Epistles and the Revelation all agree in setting forth this most solemn truth, with
such distinctness and simplicity that a babe in Christ may see it.

And yet how few comparatively believe it! The vast majority believe the very reverse.
They believe that by means of the various agencies now in operation all nations shall
be converted. In vain we call attention to our Lord's parables in Matthew 13; the tares,
the leaven, and the mustard seed. How do these agree with the idea of a converted
world? If the whole world is to be converted by a preached gospel, how is it that tares
are found in the field at the end of the age? How is it that there are as many foolish
virgins as wise ones, when the Bridegroom comes? If the whole world is to be
converted by the gospel, then on whom will "the day of the Lord so come as a thief in
the night"? Or what mean those awful words, "For when they shall say, Peace and
safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with
child; and they shall not escape"? In view of a converted world, what would be the
just application, what the moral force of those most solemn words, in the first of
Revelation, "Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they
also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him"?
Where are all those wailing kindreds to be found, if the whole world is to be
converted?

Reader, is it not as clear as a sunbeam that the two things cannot stand, for a moment
together. Is it not perfectly plain that the theory of a world converted by the gospel is
diametrically opposed to the teaching of the entire New Testament? How is it then
that the vast majority of professing Christians persist in holding it? There can be but
the one reply, and that is, they do not bow to the authority of scripture. It is most
sorrowful and solemn to have to say it; but it is, alas! too true. The Bible is read in
Christendom; but the truths of the Bible are not believed—nay, they are persistently
rejected. And all this in view of the oft-repeated boast that "the Bible, and the Bible
alone is the religion of Protestants."

But we shall not pursue this subject further here, much as we feel its weight and
importance. We trust the reader may be led by the Spirit of God to feel its deep
solemnity. We believe the Lord's people everywhere need to be thoroughly roused to a
sense of how entirely the professing church has departed from the authority of
scripture. Here, we may rest assured, lies the real cause of all the confusion, all the
error, all the evil in our midst. We have departed from the word of the Lord, and from
Himself. Until this is seen, felt and owned, we cannot be right. The Lord looks for
true repentance, real brokenness of spirit, in His presence. "To this man will I look,
even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."

This always holds good. There is no limit to the blessing, when the soul is in this truly
blessed attitude. But it must be a reality. being "poor and contrite; We must be in the
condition. It is an individual matter. "To this man will I look"

Oh! may the Lord, in His infinite mercy, lead us, every one, into true self judgement,
under the action of His word! May our ears he opened to hear His voice! May there be
a real turning of our hearts to Himself and to His word! May we turn our backs, in
holy decision, once and for ever, upon everything that will not stand the test of
scripture! This, we are persuaded, is what our Lord Christ looks for on the part Of all
who belong to Him, amid the terrible and hopeless debris of Christendom.

Deuteronomy 6

"Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgements, which the Lord
your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to
possess it: that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his
commandments, which I command thee; thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the
days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and
observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as
the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and
honey. Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord."

We have here presented to us that great cardinal truth which the nation of Israel was
specially responsible to hold fast and confess, namely, the unity of the Godhead. This
truth lay at the very foundation of the Jewish economy. It was the grand centre round
which the people were to rally. So long as they maintained this, they were a happy,
prosperous, fruitful people; but when it was let go, all was gone. It was their great
national bulwark, and that which was to mark them off from all the nations of the
east. They were called to confess this glorious truth in the face of an idolatrous world,
with "its gods many, and lords many." It was Israel's high privilege and holy
responsibility to bear a steady witness to the truth contained in that one weighty
sentence, "The Lord our God is one Lord," in marked opposition to the false gods
innumerable of the heathen around. Their father Abraham had been called out from
the very midst of heathen idolatry, to be a witness to the one true and living God, to
trust Him; to walk with Him; to lean on Him; and to obey Him.

If the reader will turn to the last chapter of Joshua, he will find a very striking allusion
to this fact, and a very important use made of it, in his closing address to the people.
"And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of
Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they
presented themselves before God. And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the
Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even
Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor; and they served other gods.
And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him
throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac."

Here, Joshua reminds the people of the fact that their fathers had served other gods—
a very solemn and weighty fact, most surely; and one which they ought never to have
forgotten, inasmuch as the remembrance of it would have taught them their deep need
of watchfulness over themselves, lest, by any means, they should be drawn back into
that gross and terrible evil out of which God, in His sovereign grace, and electing
love, had called their father Abraham. It would have been their wisdom to consider
that the self-same evil in which their fathers had lived, in the olden time, was just the
one into which they themselves were likely to fall.

Having presented this fact to the people, Joshua brings before them, with uncommon
force and vividness, all the leading events of their history, from the birth of their
father Isaac, down to the moment in which he was addressing them; and then sums up
with the following telling appeal, "Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in
sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other
side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to
serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which, your
fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in
whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Mark the repeated allusion to the fact that their fathers had worshipped false gods;
and, further, that the land into which Jehovah had brought them had been polluted,
from one end to the other, by the dark abominations of heathen idolatry.

Thus does this faithful servant of the Lord, evidently by the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, seek to set before the people their danger of living up the grand central and
foundation truth of the One true and living God, and falling back into the worship of
idols. He urges upon them the absolute necessity of whole-hearted decision. "Choose
you this day whom ye will serve." There is nothing like plain, out and out decision for
God. It is due to Him always. He had proved Himself to be unmistakably for them, in
redeeming them from the bondage of Egypt, bringing them through the wilderness,
and planting them in the land of Canaan. Hence, therefore, that they should be wholly
for Him was nothing more than their reasonable service.

How deeply Joshua felt all this, for himself, is evident from those very memorable
words, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Lovely words! Precious
decision! National religion might, and alas! did go to ruin; but personal and family
religion could, by the grace of God, be maintained, everywhere, and at all times.

Thank God for this! May we never forget it! "Me and my house" is faith's clear and
delightful response to God's "Thou and thy house." Let the condition of the ostensible,
professed people of God, at any given time, be what it may, it is the privilege of every
true-hearted man of God to adopt and act upon this immortal decision, "As for me and
my house, we will serve the Lord."

True, it is only by the grace of God, continually supplied, that this holy resolution can
be carried out; but, we may rest assured that, where the bent of the heart is to follow
the Lord fully, all needed grace will be ministered, day by day; for those encouraging
words must ever hold good, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made
perfect in weakness."

Let us now look, for a moment, at the apparent effect of Joshua's soul-stirring appeal
to the congregation. It seemed very promising. (The people answered and said, God
forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; for the Lord our God, he it
is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of
bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way
wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed; and the Lord
drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land:
therefore will we also serve the Lord; for he is our God."

All this sounded very well, and looked very hopeful. They seemed to have a clear
sense of the moral basis of Jehovah's claim upon them for implicit obedience. They
could accurately recount all His mighty deeds on their behalf, and make very earnest
and, no doubt, sincere protestations against idolatry, and promises of obedience to
Jehovah, their God.

But it is very evident that Joshua was not particularly sanguine about all this
profession, for "He said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy
God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye
forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and
consume you, after that he hath done you good. And the people said unto Joshua,
Nay; but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses
against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We
are witnesses. Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among
you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the people said unto
Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey."

We do not now stop to contemplate the aspect in which Joshua presents God to the
congregation of Israel, inasmuch as our object in referring to the passage is to show
the prominent place assigned, in Joshua's address, to the truth of the unity of the
Godhead. This was the truth to which Israel was called to bear witness, in view of all
the nations of the earth, and in which they were to find their moral safe-guard against
the ensnaring influences of idolatry.

But alas! this very truth was the one as to which they most speedily and signally
failed. The promises, vows, and resolutions made under the powerful influence of
Joshua's appeal soon proved to be like the early dew and the morning cloud that
passeth away. "The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of
the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he
did for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an
hundred and ten years old.... And also all that generation were gathered unto their
fathers; and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor
yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the
sight of the Lord, and served Baalim; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers,
which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of
the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and
provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and
Ashtaroth." (Judges 2: 7-13)

Reader, how admonitory is all this! How full of solemn warning to us all! The grand,
all-important, special and characteristic truth so soon abandoned! The one only true
and living God given up for Baal and Ashtaroth! So long as Joshua and the elders
lived, their presence and their influence kept Israel from open apostasy. But no sooner
were those moral embankments removed than the dark tide of idolatry rolled in and
swept away the very foundations of the national faith. Jehovah of Israel was displaced
by Baal and Ashtaroth. Human influence is a poor prop, a feeble barrier. We must be
sustained by the power of God, else we shall, sooner or later, give way. The faith that
stands merely in the wisdom of men, and not in the power of God, must prove a poor,
flimsy worthless faith. It will not stand the day of trial; it will not bear the furnace; it
will, most assuredly, break down.

It is well to remember this. Second-hand faith will never do. There must be a living
link connecting the soul with God. We must have to do with God for ourselves,
individually, else we shall give way when the testing time comes. Human example
and human influence may be all very good in their place. It was all very well to look
at Joshua and the elders, and see how they followed the Lord. It is quite true that, "As
iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend." It is very
encouraging to be surrounded by a number of truly devoted hearts; very delightful to
be borne along upon the bosom of the tide of collective loyalty to Christ—to His
Person and to His cause. But if this be all; if there be not the deep spring of personal
faith and personal knowledge; if there be not the divinely formed, and the divinely
sustained link of individual relationship and communion, then when the human props
are removed; when the tide of human influence ebbs, when general declension sets in,
we shall be, in principle, like Israel following the Lord, all the days of Joshua and the
elders, and then giving up the confession of His name, and returning to the follies and
vanities of this present world-things no better, in reality, than Baal and Ashtaroth.

But, on the other hand, when the heart is thoroughly established in the truth and grace
of God; when we can say—as it is the privilege of each true believer to say—"I know
whom I have believed; and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed unto him against that day; then, although all should turn aside from the
public confession of Christ; although we should find ourselves left without the help of
a human countenance, or the support of a human arm, we shall find "the foundation of
God" as sure as ever; and the path of obedience as plain before us as though
thousands were treading it with holy decision and energy.

We must never lose sight of the fact that it is the divine purpose that the professing
church of God should learn deep and holy lessons from the history of Israel.
"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning; that we,
through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." Nor is it, by any
means, necessary, in order to our thus learning from the Old Testament scriptures,
that we should occupy ourselves in searching out fanciful analogies, curious theories,
or far-fetched illustrations. Many alas! have tried these things, and, instead of finding
"comfort" in the scriptures, they have been led away into empty and foolish conceits,
if not into deadly errors.

But our business is with the living facts recorded on the page of inspired history.
These are to be our study; from these we are to draw our great practical lessons. Take,
for example, the weighty and admonitory fact now before us—a fact standing out, in
characters deep and broad, on the page of Israel's history from Joshua to Isaiah—-the
fact of Israel's lamentable departure from that very truth which they were specially
called to hold and confess—the truth of the unity of the Godhead. The very first thing
they did was to let go this grand and all-important truth, this keystone of the arch, the
foundation of the whole edifice, the very heart of their national existence, the living
centre of their national polity. They gave it up, and turned back to the idolatry of their
fathers on the other side of the flood, and of the heathen nations around them. They
abandoned that most glorious and distinctive truth on the maintenance of which their
very existence, as a nation, depended. Had they only held fast this truth, they would
have been invincible; but, in surrendering it, they surrendered all, and became much
worse than the nations around them, inasmuch as they sinned against light and
knowledge—sinned, with their eyes open—sinned in the face of the most solemn
warnings and earnest entreaties; and, we may add, in the face of the most vehement
and oft-repeated promises and protestations of obedience.

Yes, reader, Israel gave up the worship of the One true and living God, Jehovah
Elohim, their covenant God; not only their Creator, but their Redeemer; the One who
had brought them up out of the land of Egypt; conducted them through the Red Sea;
led them through the wilderness; brought them across the Jordan, and planted them,
in triumph, in the inheritance which He had promised to Abraham their father. A land
flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands." They turned their backs
upon Him, and gave themselves up to the worship of false gods. "They provoked him
to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images."

It seems perfectly wonderful that a people who had seen and known so much of the
goodness and loving kindness of God; His mighty acts, His faithfulness, His majesty,
His glory, could ever bring themselves to bow down to the stock: of a tree. But so it
was. Their whole history, from the days of the calf, at the foot of Mount Sinai, to the
day in which Nebuchadnezzar reduced Jerusalem to ruins, is marked by an
unconquerable spirit of idolatry. In vain did Jehovah, in His long-suffering mercy and
abounding goodness, raise up deliverers for them, to lift them from beneath the
terrible consequences of their sin and folly. Again and again, in His inexhaustible
mercy and patience, He saved them from the hand of their enemies. He raised up an
Othniel, an Ehud, a Barak, a, Gideon, a Jephthah, a Samson, those instruments of His
mercy and power, those witnesses of His deep and tender love and compassion
toward His poor infatuated people. No sooner had each judge passed off the scene,
than back the nation plunged into their besetting sin of idolatry.

So also, in the days of the kings. It is the same melancholy, heart-rending story. True,
there were bright spots, here and there, some brilliant stars shining out through the
deep gloom of the nation's history; we have a David, an Asa, a Jehoshaphat, a
Hezekiah, a Josiah—refreshing and blessed exceptions to the dark and dismal rule.
But even men like these failed to eradicate from the heart of the nation the pernicious
root of idolatry. Even amid the unexampled splendours of Solomon's reign, that root
sent forth its bitter shoots, in the monstrous form of high places to Ashtaroth, the
goddess of the Zidonians; Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites; and Chemosh,
the abomination of Moab.

Reader, only think of this. Pause for a moment, and contemplate the astounding fact
of the writer of the Canticles, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs bowing at the shrine of
Molech! Only conceive the wisest, the wealthiest and the most glorious of Israel's
monarchs, burning incense, and offering sacrifices upon the altar of Chemosh!

Truly, there is something here for us to ponder. It was written for our learning. The
reign of Solomon affords one of the most striking and impressive evidences of the
fact which is just now engaging our attention, namely, Israel's complete and hopeless
apostasy from the grand truth of the unity of the Godhead—their unconquerable spirit
of idolatry. The truth which they were specially called out to hold and confess, was
the very truth which they, first of all and most persistently, abandoned.

We shall not pursue the dark line of evidence further; neither shall we dwell upon the
appalling picture of the nation's judgement, in consequence of their idolatry. They are
now in the condition of which the prophet Hosea speaks: "The children of Israel shall
abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and
without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim."—"The unclean spirit
of idolatry has gone out of them," during these "many days," to return, by-and-by,
with "seven other spirits more wicked than himself"—the very perfection of spiritual
wickedness. And then will come days of unparalleled tribulation upon that long
misguided and deeply revolted people —"The time of Jacob's trouble."

But deliverance will come, blessed be God! Bright days are in store for the restored
nation—"days of heaven upon earth"—as the same prophet Hosea tells us: "Afterward
shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their King;
and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." All the promises of God to
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David shall be blessedly accomplished; all the brilliant
predictions of the prophets, from Isaiah to Malachi, shall be gloriously fulfilled. Yes,
both promises and prophecies shall be literally and gloriously made good to restored
Israel, in the land of Canaan; for "the scripture cannot be broken." The long, dark,
dreary night shall be followed by the brightest day that has ever shone upon this earth;
the daughter of Zion shall bask in the bright and blessed beams of "the Sun of
Righteousness;" and "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the
waters cover the sea."

It would indeed be a most delightful exercise to reproduce upon the pages of this
volume those glowing passages from the prophets which speak of Israel's future; but
this we cannot attempt; it is not needful; and we have a duty to fulfil which, if not so
pleasing to us, or so refreshing to the reader, will, we earnestly hope, prove not less
profitable.

The duty is this, to press upon the attention of the reader—and upon the attention of
the whole church of God—the practical application of that solemn fact in Israel's
history on which we have dwelt at such length—the fact of their having so speedily,
and so completely given up the great truth set forth in Deuteronomy 6: 4, "Hear, O
Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord."

We may, perhaps, be asked, "What bearing can this fact have upon the church of
God?" We believe it has a most solemn bearing; and, further, we believe we should be
guilty of a very culpable shirking of our duty to Christ and to His church, if we failed
to point it out. We know that all the great facts of Israel's history are full of
instruction, full of admonition, full of warning, for us. It is our business, our bounden
duty to see that we profit by them—to take heed that we study them aright.

Now, in contemplating the history of the church of God, as a public witness for
Christ, on the earth, we find that, hardly had it been set up, in all the fullness of
blessing and privilege which marked the opening of its career, ere it began to slip
away from those very truths which it was specially responsible to maintain and
confess. Like Adam, in the garden of Eden; like Noah, in the restored earth; like
Israel, in Canaan; so the church, as the responsible steward of the mysteries of God,
was no sooner set in its place, than it began to totter and fall. It almost immediately
began to give up those grand truths which were characteristic of its very existence,
and which were to mark off Christianity from all that had gone before. Even under the
eyes of the apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, errors and evils had begun
to work which sapped the very foundations of the church's testimony.

Are we asked for proofs? Alas! we have them, in melancholy abundance. Hear the
words of that blessed apostle who shed more tears and heaved more sighs over the
ruins of the church than any man that ever lived. "I marvel," he says; and well he
might, "that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ,
unto another gospel: which is not another." "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" "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, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months,
and times, and years;" Christian festivals, so called, very imposing and gratifying to
religious nature; but, in the judgement of the apostle, the judgement of the Holy
Ghost, it was simply giving up Christianity and going back to the worship of idols. "I
am afraid of you," and no wonder, when they could thus so speedily turn away from
the grand characteristic truths of a heavenly Christianity, and occupy themselves with
superstitious observances. "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour
in vain." "Ye did run well; who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth? This
persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole
lump."

And all this in the apostle's own day. The departure was even more rapid than in
Israel's case; for they served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the
elders that outlived Joshua; but, in the church's sad and humiliating history, the enemy
succeeded, almost immediately, in introducing leaven into the meal, tares among the
wheat. Ere the apostles themselves had left the scene, seed was sown which has been
bearing its pernicious fruit ever since, and shall continue to bear, till angelic reapers
clear the field.

But we must give further proof from scripture. Let us hearken to the same inspired
witness, near the close of his ministry, pouring out his heart to his beloved son
Timothy, in accents, at once pathetic and solemn. "This thou knowest, that all they
which are in Asia be turned away from me." Again, "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."

Here is the testimony of the man who, as a wise master builder, had laid the
foundation of the church. And what was his own personal experience? He was, like
his blessed Master, left alone, deserted by those who had once gathered round him in
the freshness, bloom, and ardour of early days. His large, loving heart was broken by
Judaising teachers who sought to overturn the very foundations of Christianity, and to
overthrow the faith of God's elect. He wept over the ways of many who, while they
made a profession, were, nevertheless, "the enemies of the cross of Christ."

In a word, the Apostle Paul, as he looked forth from his prison at Rome, saw the
hopeless wreck and ruin of the professing body. He saw that it would happen to that
body, as it had happened to the ship in which he had made his last voyage—a voyage
strikingly significant and illustrative of the church's sad history in this world. But here
let us just remind the reader, that we are dealing now only with the question of the
church, as a responsible witness for Christ on the earth. This must be distinctly seen,
else we shall greatly err in our thoughts on the subject. We must accurately
distinguish between the church as the body of Christ, and as His light bearer or
witness in the world. In the former character, failure is impossible; in the latter, the
ruin is complete and hopeless.

The church, as the body of Christ, united to her living and glorified Head in the
heavens, by the presence and indwelling of the Holy Ghost, can never, by any
possibility, fail—never be smashed to pieces, like Paul's ship, by the storms and
billows of this hostile world. It is as safe as Christ Himself. The Head and the body
are one—indissolubly one. No power of earth or hell, men or devils can ever touch
the feeblest and most obscure member of that blessed body. All stand before God, all
are under His gracious eye, in the fullness, beauty and acceptability of Christ Himself.
As is the Head, so are the members—all the members together—each member in
particular. All stand in the full eternal results of Christ's finished work on the cross.
There is—there can be no question of responsibility here. The Head made Himself
responsible for the members. He perfectly met every claim, and discharged every
liability. Nothing remains but love—love, deep as the heart of Christ, perfect as His
work, unchanging as His throne. Every question that could possibly be raised against
any one, or all of the members of the church of God, was raised, gone into, and
definitively settled, between God and His Christ, on the cross. All the sins, all the
iniquities, all the transgressions, all the guilt of each member in particular, and all the
members together—yes all, in the fullest and most absolute way, was laid on Christ
and borne by Him God, in His inflexible justice, in His infinite holiness, in His eternal
righteousness, dealt with everything that could ever, in any possible manner, stand in
the way of the full salvation, perfect blessedness, and everlasting glory of every one of
the members of the body of Christ the assembly of God. Every member of the body is
permeated by the life of the Head; every stone in the building is animated by the life
of the chief corner-stone. All are bound together in the power of a bond which can
never, no never, be dissolved.

And, furthermore, let it be distinctly understood that the unity of the body of Christ is
absolutely indissoluble. This is a cardinal point which must be tenaciously held, and
faithfully confessed. But, obviously, it cannot be held and confessed, unless it is
understood and believed; and, judging from the expressions which one sometimes
hears, in speaking on the subject, it is very questionable indeed if people, so
expressing themselves, have ever grasped, in a divine way, the glorious truth of the
unity of the body of Christ—a unity maintained, on earth, by the indwelling of the
Holy Ghost.

Thus, for example, we sometimes hear people speak of "rending the body of Christ."
It is a complete mistake. Such a thing is utterly impossible. The Reformers were
accused of rending the body of Christ, when they turned their backs upon the Romish
system. What a gross misconception! It simply amounted to the monstrous
assumption that a vast mass of moral evil, doctrinal error, ecclesiastical corruption,
and debasing superstition was to be owned as the body of Christ! How could any one,
with the New Testament in his hand, regard the so-called church of Rome, with its
numberless and nameless abominations, as the body of Christ? How could any one,
possessing the very faintest idea of the true church of God, ever think of bestowing
that title upon the darkest mass of wickedness, the greatest masterpiece of Satan the
world has ever beheld?

No, reader; we must never confound the ecclesiastical systems of this world—ancient,
medieval, or modern, Greek, Latin, Anglican, National or Popular, Established or
Dissenting—with the true church of God, the body of Christ. There is not, beneath the
canopy of heaven, this day, nor ever was, a religious system, call it what you please,
possessing the very smallest claim to be called, "The church of God," or "The body of
Christ." And, as a consequence, it can never be, rightly or intelligently, called schism,
or rending the body of Christ, to separate from such systems; nay, on the contrary, it is
the bounden duty of every one who would faithfully maintain and confess the truth of
the unity of the body, to separate with the most unqualified decision, from everything
falsely calling itself a church. It can only be viewed as schism to separate from those
who are, unmistakably and unquestionably, gathered on the ground of the assembly of
God.

No body of Christians can now lay claim to the title of the body of Christ, or church
of God. The members of that body are scattered everywhere they are to be found in all
the various religious organisations of the day, save such as deny the deity of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We cannot admit the idea that any true Christian could continue to
frequent a place where his Lord is blasphemed. But, although no body of Christians
can lay claim to the title of the assembly of God, all Christians are responsible to be
gathered on the ground of that assembly, and on no other.

And if we be asked, "How are we to know—where are we to find this ground?" We
reply, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." “If any man will
do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." "There is "a path"—thanks be to God for
it, though—"no fowl knoweth, and the vulture's eye hath not seen it. The lion's whelps
have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it." Nature’s keenest vision cannot
see this path, nor its greatest strength tread it. Where is it then? Here it is, "Unto
man—to the reader and to the writer, to each, to all 'he said, Behold, the fear of the
Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." (Job 28.) But there is
another expression which we not infrequently hear from persons from whom we
might expect more intelligence, namely, cutting off the members of the body of
Christ."* This too, blessed be God, is impossible. Not a single member of the body of
Christ can ever be severed from the Head, or ever disturbed from the place into which
he has been incorporated by the Holy Ghost, in pursuance of the eternal purpose of
God, and in virtue of the accomplished atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
divine Three in One are pledged for the eternal security of the very feeblest member
of the body; and for the maintenance of the indissoluble unity of the whole.
{*The expression, "cutting off the members of Christ's body" is generally applied in
cases of discipline. But it is quite a misapplication. The discipline of the assembly can
never touch the unity of the body. A member of the body may so fail in morals or err
in doctrine, as to call for the action of the assembly, in putting him away from the
Table; but that has nothing to do with his place in the body, The two things are
perfectly distinct.}

In a word, then, it is as true, today, as it was when the inspired apostle penned the
fourth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians, that "There is one body," of which
Christ is Head, of which the Holy Ghost is the formative power; and of which all true
believers are members. This body has been on earth, since the day of Pentecost, is on
earth now, and shall continue on earth until that moment, so rapidly approaching,
when Christ shall come and take it to His Father's house. It is the same body, with a
continual succession of members, just as we speak of a certain regiment of her
Majesty's army having been at Waterloo, and now quartered at Aldershot, though not
a man in the regiment of today appeared at the memorable battle of 1815.

Does the reader feel any difficulty as to all this? It may be that he finds it hard, in the
present broken and scattered condition of the members, to believe and confess the
unbroken unity of the whole. He may feel disposed, perhaps, to limit the application
of Ephesians 4: 4, to the day in which the apostle penned the words, when Christians
were manifestly one; and when there was no such thing thought of as being a member
of this church or a member of that church; because all believers were members of the
one church.*
{*The unity of the church may be compared to a chain thrown across a river; we see it
at each side, but it dips in the middle. But though it dips, it is not broken; though we
do not see the union in the middle, we believe it is there all the same. The church was
seen in its unity on the day of Pentecost, and it will be seen in its unity in the glory;
and although we do not see it now, we nevertheless believe it most surely.
And, be it remembered, that the unity of the body is a great practical, formative truth;
and one very weighty practical deduction from it is that the state and walk of each
member affect the whole body. "If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it."
A member of what? Some local assembly? Nay; but a member of the body. We must
not make the body of Christ a matter of geography.
"But," we may be asked, "are we affected by what we do not see or know?" Assuredly.
Are we to limit the grand truth of the unity of the body with all its practical
consequences, to the measure of our personal knowledge and experience? Far be the
thought. it is the presence of the Holy Ghost that unites the members of the body to
the Head and to one another; and hence it is that the walk and ways of each affect all.
Even in Israel's case, where it was not a corporate but a national unity, when Achan
sinned, it was said, "Israel hath sinned;" and the whole congregation suffered a
humiliating defeat on account of a sin of which they were ignorant.
It is perfectly marvellous how little the Lord's people seem to understand the glorious
truth of the unity of the body, and the practical consequences flowing from it.}

In reply, we must protest against the very idea of limiting the word of God. What
possible right have we to single out one clause from Ephesians 4: 4-6 and say it only
applied to the days of the apostles? If one clause is to be so limited, why not all? Are
there not still, "one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of
all"? Will any question this? Surely not. Well then it follows that there is as surely one
body as there is one Spirit, one Lord, one God. All are intimately bound up together,
and you cannot touch one without touching all. We have no more right to deny the
existence of the one body than we have to deny the existence of God, inasmuch as the
self-same passage that declares to us the one, declares to us the other also.

But some will, doubtless, inquire, "Where is this one body to be seen? Is it not an
absurdity to speak of such a thing, in the face of the almost numberless denominations
of Christendom?" Our answer is this, We are not going to surrender the truth of God
because man has so signally failed to carry it out. Did not Israel utterly fail to
maintain, confess and carry out, the truth of the unity of the Godhead? And was that
glorious truth, in the smallest degree, touched by their failure? Was it not as true that
there was one God, though there were as many idolatrous altars as streets in
Jerusalem, and every housetop sent up a cloud of incense to the queen of heaven, as
when Moses sounded forth in the ears of the whole congregation, those sublime
words, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord"? Blessed be God, His truth does
not depend upon the faithless, foolish ways of men. It stands in its own divine
integrity; it shines in its own heavenly, undimmed lustre, spite of the grossest human
failure. Were it not so, what should we do? whither should we turn? or what would
become of us? In fact, it comes to this, if we were only to believe the measure of truth
which we see practically carried out in the ways of men, we might give up in despair,
and be of all men most miserable.

But how is the truth of the one body to be practically carried out? By refusing to own
any other principle of Christian fellowship—any other ground of meeting. All true
believers should meet on the simple ground of membership of the body of Christ; and
on no other. They should assemble, on the first day of the week, round the Lord's
Table, and break bread, as members of the one body, as we read in 1 Corinthians 10,
"For we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we are all partakers of that one loaf."
This is as true, and as practical, today, as it was when the apostle addressed the
assembly at Corinth. True, there were divisions; at Corinth as there are divisions in
Christendom; but that did not, in any wise, touch the truth of God. The apostle
rebuked the divisions—pronounced them carnal. He had no sympathy with the poor
low idea which one sometimes hears advocated, that divisions are good things as
superinducing emulation. He believed they were very bad things—the fruit of the
flesh, the work of Satan.

Neither—we feel persuaded—would the apostle have accepted the popular
illustration that divisions in the church are like so many regiments, with different
facings, all fighting under the same commander-in-chief. It would not hold good for a
moment; indeed, it has no application whatever, but rather gives a flat contradiction
to that distinct and emphatic statement, "There is one body."

Reader, this is a most glorious truth. Let us ponder it deeply. Let us look at
Christendom in the light of it. Let us judge our own position and ways by it. Are we
acting on it? Do we give expression to it, at the Lord's Table, every Lord's day? Be
assured it is our sacred duty and high privilege so to do. Say not there are difficulties
of all sorts; many stumbling-blocks in the way; much to dishearten us in the conduct
of those who profess to meet on this very ground of which we speak.

All this is, alas! but too true. We must be quite prepared for it. The devil will leave no
stone unturned to cast dust in our eyes so that we may not see God's blessed way for
His people. But we must not give heed to his suggestions or be snared by his devices.
There always have been, and there always will be difficulties in the way of carrying
out the precious truth of God; and perhaps one of the greatest difficulties is found in
the inconsistent conduct of those who profess to act upon it.

But then we must ever distinguish between the truth and those who profess it;
between the ground and the conduct of those who occupy it. Of course, they ought to
harmonise; but they do not; and hence we are imperatively called to judge the conduct
by the ground, not the ground by the conduct. If we saw a man farming on a principle
which we knew to be thoroughly sound, but he was a bad farmer, what should we do?
Of course, we should reject his mode of working, but hold the principle all the same.

Not otherwise is it, in reference to the truth now before us. There were heresies at
Corinth, schisms, errors, evils, of all sorts. What then? Was the truth of God to be
surrendered as a myth, as something wholly impracticable? Was it all to be given up?
Were the Corinthians to meet on some other principle? Were they to organise
themselves on some new ground? Were they to gather round some fresh centre? No,
thank God! His truth was not to be surrendered, for a moment, although Corinth was
split up into ten thousand sects, and its horizon darkened by ten thousand heresies.
The body of Christ was one; and the apostle simply displays in their view the banner
with this blessed inscription, "Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."

Now these words were addressed, not merely "unto the church at Corinth," but also
"to all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and
ours." Hence, the truth of the one body is abiding and universal. Every true Christian
is bound to recognise it, and to act on it; and every assembly of Christians, wherever
convened, should be the local expression of this grand and all-important truth.

Some might, perhaps, feel disposed to ask how it could be said to any one assembly,
"Ye are the body of Christ"? Were there not saints at Ephesus, Colosse and Philippi?
No doubt? and had the apostle been addressing them on the same subject, he could
have said to them likewise, "Ye are the body of Christ," inasmuch as they were the
local expression of the body; and not only so, but, in addressing them, he had before
his mind all saints, to the end of the church's earthly career.

But we must bear in mind that the apostle could not possibly address such words to
any human organisation, ancient or modern. No; nor if all such organisations, call
them what you please, were amalgamated into one, could he speak of it as "the body
of Christ." That body, let it be distinctly understood, consists of all true believers on
the face of the earth. That they are not gathered on that only divine ground, is their
serious loss, and their Lord's dishonour. The precious truth holds good, all the same—
"There is one body;" and this is the divine standard by which to measure every
ecclesiastical association and every religious system under the sun.

We deem it needful to go somewhat fully into the divine side of the question of the
church, in order to guard the truth of God from the results of misapprehension; and
also that the reader may clearly understand that, in speaking of the utter failure and
ruin of the church, we are looking at the human side of the subject. To this latter, we
must return for a moment.

It is impossible to read the New Testament, with a calm and unprejudiced mind, and
not see that the church, as a responsible witness for Christ on the earth, has, most
signally and shamefully, failed, To quote all the passages in proof of this statement
would, literally, fill a small volume. But, let us glance at the second and third chapters
of the book of Revelation where the church is seen under judgement. We have, in
these solemn chapters, what we may call a divine church history. Seven assemblies
are taken up, as illustrative of the various phases of the church's history, from the day
in which it was set up, in responsibility, on the earth, until it shall be spued out of the
Lord's mouth, as something utterly intolerable. If we do not see that these two
chapters are prophetic, as well as historic, we shall deprive ourselves of a vast field of
most valuable instruction. For ourselves, we can only assure the reader that no human
language could adequately set forth what we have gathered from Revelation 2 and 3,
in their prophetic aspect.

However, we are only referring to them now as the last of a series of scripture proofs
of our present thesis. Take the address to Ephesus, the self-same church to which the
Apostle Paul wrote his marvellous epistle, opening up, so blessedly, the heavenly side
of things, God's eternal purpose respecting the church—the position and portion of
the church, as accepted in Christ, and blessed with all spiritual blessings, in the
heavenlies in Him. No failure here. No thought of such a thing. No possibility Of it.
All is in God's hands here. The counsel is His; the work His. It is His grace, His glory,
His mighty power, His good pleasure; and all founded upon the blood of Christ. There
is no question of responsibility here. The church was "dead in trespasses and sins" but
Christ died for her; He placed Himself judicially where she was morally; and God, in
His sovereign grace, entered the scene and raised up Christ from the dead, and the
church in Him glorious fact! Here all is sure and settled. It is the church in the
heavenlies, in Christ, not the church on earth for Christ. It is the body "accepted," not
the candlestick judged. If we do not see both sides of this great question, we have
much to learn.

But there is the earthly side, as well as the heavenly; the human as well as the divine;
the candlestick as well as the body. Hence it is that in the judicial address, in
Revelation 2, we read such solemn words as these, "I have against thee, that thou hast
left thy first love."

How very distinct! Nothing like this in Ephesians; nothing against the body, nothing
against the bride; but there is something against the candlestick. The light had, even
already, become dim. Hardly had it been lighted, ere the snuffers were needed.

Thus, at the very outset, symptoms of decline showed themselves, unmistakably, to
the penetrating eye of Him who walked amongst the seven golden candlesticks; and
when we reach the close, and contemplate the last phase of the church's condition—
the last stage of its earthly history, as illustrated by the assembly, at Laodicea, there is
not a single redeeming feature. The case is almost hopeless. The Lord is outside the
door. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." It is not, here, as at Ephesus, "I have
somewhat against thee." The whole condition is bad, The whole professing body is
about to be given up. "I will spue thee out of my mouth." He still lingers, blessed be
His Name, for He is ever slow to leave the place of mercy, or enter the place of
judgement. It reminds us of the departure of the glory, in the opening of Ezekiel. It
moved, with a slow and measured pace, loath to leave the house, the people and the
land. "Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the
threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full
of the brightness of the Lord's glory." "Then the glory of the Lord departed from off
the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims." And, finally, “The glory of
the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on
the east side of the city. (Ezek 10: 4, 18; 11: 23.)

This is deeply affecting. How striking the contrast between this slow departure of the
glory and its speedy entrance, in the day of Solomon's dedication of the house, in 2
Chronicles 7: 1. Jehovah was quick to enter His abode, in the midst of His people;
slow to leave it. He was, to speak after the manner of men, forced away by the sins
and hopeless impenitence of His infatuated people.

So also, with the church. We see, in the second of Acts, His rapid entrance into His
spiritual house. He came, like a rushing mighty wind, to fill the house with His glory.
But, in the third of Revelation, see His attitude. He is outside. Yes; but He is
knocking. He lingers, not indeed with any hope of corporate restoration; but if haply
"any man would hear his voi