Divine Life and International Expositor of Scriptural Holiness 1878-1889. Asbury Lowrey, Asa Mahan.

The volume of Mr. Smith on the First Epistle is a decided success. The present volume, in our judgment, even exceeds the first. It is rich in Scriptural exposition, and spiritual thought and reflection. At the same time, the citation of the best thoughts of the best expositors upon the most important passages of the two Epistles renders these volumes of great worth to the enquirer after Biblical knowledge and Scripture truth.

THE FAITHFUL SAYING. A Series of Addresses, by D. L. Moody; revised. Morgan and Scott.

This volume contains a selection from the addresses delivered by Mr. Moody at the New York meetings. The selection has evidently been very judiciously made, and presents on subjects of the deepest interest, portions of the best utterances of their author, subjects such as: "Weak Things Confounding Things which are Weighty"—"Faith"— "Courage and Enthusiasm"—"The Gospel"—"The Love of Christ"—"Grace," &c.

THE POWER OF GOD. By Rev. E. W. Moore, M A., Minister of Brunswick Chapel, Portman Square. Hodder and Stoughton.

This pamphlet of 31 pages is the fifth of a series of tracts which are being published monthly by the firm above named. The nature of the Power treated of is clearly indicated by the text: "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me" (Acts i. 8). In this pamphlet, this subject, so important in itself, and which, blessed be the Lord God, is now occupying Christian thought everywhere more and more, is elucidated with great interest and power. We were not a little surprised and charmed with the freshness with which the subject is treated. We must give a single extract. "God the Holy Ghost is power: power of every kind, power moral, power intellectual; but above all, power spiritual. To receive the Holy Ghost is to receive power. Mark, it is not here of the graces, or of the gifts, or of the influences administered by the Spirit in the Church that the Lord is speaking, but of the Holy Ghost Himself. His gifts may vary with the ages, sometimes bestowed, sometimes withheld. These administrations may differ according to the mode of the Church and the circumstances of the time, but He Himself remains the same. His presence is the promise to the Church in every age: 'I will pray the Father, find He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever.'"

SANCTIFICATION THROUGH FAITH. By Mrs. Gordon.

Hodder and Stoughton.

This is number IV. of the series above referred to. Whatever comes from under the pen of Mrs. Gordon is, of course, worthy of special regard. In this pamphlet the reader will find many of her choice utterances on a central truth of "the glorious Gospel of the Blessed God."

ECHOES FROM BEULAH, and Home Memories, Hymns and Poems. By Fanny Lansdale, author of "Bertha Frankland," &c. Haughton and Co.

While the poetry of this little book will not be found of the highest order, the reader will find not a little in it of a deeply spiritual character.

THE SHIELD OF FAITH: A Sketch of Isaac and Mary Penington. By Frances A. Budge, author of "Annals of the Early Friends." Samuel Harris and Co. Price 3d.

In the above pamphlet we have an admirably written sketch of two individuals who deservedly rank among the most eminent of the Early Friends—Isaac Penington and his wife. These individuals lived in a martyr age, Isaac Penington being born about 1616. They also suffered as martyrs, and endured as none not "endowed with power from on high" can endure. During a period of nine months' imprisonment "for Christ's sake," he thus writes to his wife: "Be still in thine own spirit, and await what the Lord will do for me, that all the prayers which in the tenderness of my soul I have often put up for thee may have their full effect upon thee. My dear, be my true yoke-fellow, helpful to draw my heart toward the Lord, and from everything but what is sanctified by the presence and leadings of His life. I feel, and thou knowest that I am, very dearly thine." The following sentence from his writings reveals the character and secret of his religious life: "Though the creature seemeth to do much itself (having received life from the grace, and acting abundantly towards God in the grace), yet, it is the grace and virtue which comes from the Creator—who is also the Redeemer —which indeed doth all." Few pamphlets can be read with greater interest and profit than this.

SPECIAL NOTICE TO OUR READERS.

The object of publishing literature on the subject of holiness is to have it read. Truth can only produce its sanctifying effect by being brought into actual contact with the mind.

With a view, therefore, of extending the circulation of the DIVINE LIFE AND INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITOR OF SCRIPTURAL HOLINESS, we offer one shilling of the subscription price as a premium to any one who will send us one or more new subscribers, for twelve months, by the 1st of July, 1878. The subscription for twelve months is two shillings and sixpence, post free; and in all cases the amount must accompany the order. If the individual to whom this number is sent cannot give personal attention to this proposi- tion, it might be a kindness to some needy and worthy person, and a service rendered to the cause of Christ as well, to call special attention to this offer.

N.B.—Our readers will please notice the change in Dr. Mahan's address.

Present address: Ivy Cottage, Kynaston Road, Stoke Newington, London, N.

DIVINE LIFE

JULY. 1st.

"DEAD FLIES."

WHAT "dead flies" are to "the ointment of the apothecary," and " a little folly to him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour," such is sin, in any form or degree, to Christian character and influence. No perfume is comparable to that which issues from the precious ointment of the apothecary when no dead substance is in it. So, nothing is so pure and beautiful as holiness, and no influence is so benign and divine as that which flows out from a pure and holy character and life. Put a dead fly into that precious ointment, and nothing is so offensive as the savour which is then sent forth from that substance. So, mingle sin with a holy character and life, and you induce a form of deformity more offensive than were otherwise possible, and from a character and life, thus defiled there issues an influence more unsavoury and unhealthful than arises from any other source. "The human face divine," blooming with health and life, what visible form can be so beautiful, so dignified, and so god-like, as that? How we naturally dread, on the other hand, to look upon that same countenance, when we behold in it nothing but the image of death. The countenance, however, which to all the race wears the most dreaded aspect, is that which, at the same time, reflects the image of life and death. Such are the Christian character and life when they present at the same time the mingled aspect of holiness and sin—the image of moral and spiritual life and death. Dead flies cannot be so deleterious to the ointment of the apothecary as sin is to the Christian character and life. Dead flies cannot render the savour of that ointment so offensive as sin renders the otherwise "sweet savour" of holiness.

Do you, can you, think, reader, that it is God's revealed pattern of the Christian life, that it should ever present to the world the mingled aspect of life and death that sin, that dead fly, should always intermingle with the oil of grace in the Christian heart, and thus cause that "precious ointment" ever to send forth "a stinking savour?" This is not "the pattern shown us in the Mount." "The New Man" which we are required to put on "after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Not a feature or element of death has place upon the countenance, or in the life, of that Man. There is not a single dead fly, nor an element of death, in any form, in the oil of grace with which God would have the sanctified heart filled.

The most subtle and demoralizing of all the errors with which Satan has corrupted the "minds of believers from the simplicity that is in Christ" is the dogma that sin, as a dead fly in the oil of grace in the sanctified mind, is to abide as a fixed element in the Christian character and life. Could our voice reach the ear of every expounder of the Word of God, we would assure him that, if he does hold and teach that subverting dogma, there is A dead fly in his theology, a dead fly which wilt devitalize the "sweet savour of Christ" which should perfume all his teachings.

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EXPERIENCE—THE END OF TEACHING.

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NO saving result is attained until theories and teaching are resolved into experience. There is such a thing as ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. It is not enough to be well instructed in holiness. Nor is it enough to be well disposed towards the subject. We may be steeped to the lips in correct theology, and yet have the remains of sin lurking in our hearts. Indeed, until we put into use the appropriating power of faith, we attain no new degree, and make no advance in the realization of heart-purification.

We may pile up resolutions mountains high, exhaust ourselves with self- effort, and pore over pages and volumes of holy literature, and yet, not coming to the point of "taking the water of life freely" by an immediate act of self- renouncing trust in Christ, we remain utter strangers to the cleansing efficacy of the blood of Christ.

Oh render, let us come boldly to a throne of grace. Mark, it is a throne of unmixed grace in opposition to a throne of legal exactions. Let us "take the water of life freely." Observe, it is to take the water of life freely, in contradistinction to giving an equivalent for it, or working ourselves into its possession. Then let us cast away every other dependence and refuge, and shut ourselves up to Jesus Christ our Saviour for present and full salvation. Do not think of Jesus as far away, but contemplate Him as a real personal presence. Do not say, by implication, "Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead)." Remember, "the Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart." Do not say, I may, or can, or will be saved; but, having renounced all sin and given all to Christ, believe you do receive, that you are this moment in receptive communication with Him—that the blood now cleanses —that you are even now being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. In this confiding attitude, rest until the day dawns, and the day star arises in your heart.

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD.

——

BY REP. HENRY BURTON, B.A.

My Shepherd, Lord, Thou art,

For when to Thee, a wandering lamb I came,

Thou did'st not chide me, but did'st call my name.

And bid me not depart.

As trembling there I stool,

Thy hand caressed me, and the gate unlocked,

And then Thou bid'st me come and join thy flock,

How kind it was and good!

Weary I came and cold,

And many a thorn had pierced my tender feet;

But ah! no thorn—no frost—no summer's heat

Can reach me in the fold.

Such gentle words were Thine,

That as I lay close nestled by thy side,

"Come sun or storm—I care not now," I cried,

"If thou art only mine."

O Shepherd, true and kind!

Thou bidst me follow Thee, and so I will,

Nor would I choose my path; for sure no ill

Can come by Thee designed.

'Tis Thine to choose the way;

Thy constant love can never lead me wrong:

'Tis mine to follow trustingly along,

By night as well as day.

My pasture choose for me;

And if the verdant meadow, or the crest

Of yonder barren mountain, be the best,

I leave it all to Thee.

'Tis Thine Thy lamb to feed,

And tho' in pastures rich I long have fed,

The bitter aloes I will take instead,

If Thou dost see a need.

Good Shepherd, choose my springs;

And if at Marah I shall rest awhile,

Or if at Elim, where the palm trees smile,

Thy praise each fountain sings.

I shall not want, for lo!

The teeming pastures of the world are Thine!

And all the treasures of the secret mine,

I shall not want, Oh no!

Thus lead me on, till I

Have lived the measure of my days below

Have crossed the wilds of sunshine and of woe,

To reach the fold on high.

And when at Jordan's wave,

"I shall not want," for in Thy arms I'll rest;

Close wilt Thou fold me to Thy loving breast;

Then Jesus, Thou wilt save.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST AS SET FORTH IN THE SCRIPTURES.

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BY REP. ASA MAHAN, D.D., LL.D.

THE promised Baptism of the Holy Ghost, as we have set forth the doctrine, is seldom or never received at the moment of regeneration, but is a special enduement of power from on high to be sought and received by faith "after we have believed." In the experience of here and there, an exceptional case, the Baptism may so immediately follow the first act of faith in Christ, that the subject may not be distinctly conscious of any interval between them. In the vast majority of cases, however, this interval is distinctly marked in experience. But in all cases in which this enduement of power is received, the religious experience and life assume, in every essential respect, forms of development and manifestation otherwise utterly impossible. All who receive "the promise of the Spirit" know that which none others can know, what our Saviour meant when he said, "He that believeth in Me as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." The special characteristics of this new and divine form of the Christian experience and life are distinctly and definitely stated by our Saviour Himself, John xiv. 15-23. The reader is requested to peruse with care the whole passage, which is too long for insertion here. Among the specified results which follow the coming and abiding presence of the Comforter, we allude to the following:

RESULTS IN EXPERIENCE OF THE COMING OF THE COMFORTER.

1. We then know the Holy Spirit Himself. "Ye know Him," that is, will know Him, "for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Of the Spirit the world knows nothing. In the regard of the mass of believers He is an influence rather than a consciously manifested personal presence. The operations of the Spirit in their minds, and the thoughts and truths which He suggests, they are not able to distinguish, as stated by a leading clergyman, from what occurs through the laws of ordinary mental association. When "we receive the promise of the Spirit by faith," on the other hand, we become distinctly conscious of an inward enlightenment and enduement of power, wholly supernatural and divine, and of that enlightenment and power as administered by an indwelling personal presence. As the Spirit "leads us into all truth," "opens the eyes of our understanding, so that we KNOW the things which are freely given us of God," "takes of the things of Christ, and snows them unto us," and "SHOWS us plainly of the Father," "as, He opens our understanding, that we might understand the Scriptures," as He "strengthens us with might in the inner man," so that "Christ dwells in our hearts by faith," and we "comprehend the breadth, and depth, and length, and height, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and are filled with all the fulness of God," we "beholding, with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord," as He brings us into conscious "fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ," as in prayer He becomes our Intercessor, and so guides that we ask for those things which accord with the divine will, as, amid the ever varying events and providences of life, He makes "darkness light," "the crooked straight, and the rough places plain," so that we know God's will, as, when clouds and darkness overshadow us, He brings to our hearts "everlasting consolations and good hope through grace," as He renders us conscious of the outflow from the inner temple of our hearts of "rivers of living water," and, finally, as under His conscious guidance and enlightenment, we, wondering with unutterable wonder, walk up and down amid the great revelations of God, "the Bible becoming a new Book to us," becoming "transfigured before us, and "appearing in glory" like "the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven," when the Spirit thus abides in us, and we walk in Him, then we KNOW Him, know Him as the pupil knows his teacher, and a loving son his father.

2. When "the believer receives power, the Holy Ghost coming upon him," then, and not till then, is his orphanage ended. When Christ was taken from His disciples, a sense of orphanage came over them, such as humanity had never before experienced. Anticipating this event, He says to them, "I will not (as parents do when they die) leave you comfortless; (orphans, the literal rendering of the original); I will come to you." At the Pentecost, in the glory which He had with the Father, after His resurrection, He did, as a glory- manifested presence, come to them, and then they were orphans no more; "the days of their mourning were ended." So it is with believers generally. After their primal joy has passed away; then their orphanage begins, and "much in sorrow, oft in woe," they move on, much as a funeral procession, sighing for "the blessedness they knew when first they saw the Lord," talking to one another of the aching void within," and of a want of power to "fly, or go to reach eternal joys." "The intercourse of many Christians with Christ," says Tholuck, "is like that which the disciples had with Him after His resurrection. He had not then come to them in the Spirit, not yet made His dwelling in their hearts; but was still, as it were, without them, permitting them only now and then to be conscious of His presence. He came, they knew not when; He went, they knew not whither. Their hearts, indeed, burned when He was near, but failed when He departed. Thus it is with Christians now."

All this is reversed when "the Comforter has come." Then Christ is no longer to us "as a stranger and sojourner."

"Through the Spirit, Christ and the Father come to us, and make their abode with us." "Our sun does not go down, neither does our moon withdraw itself." Those who go in through the gates of the New Jerusalem, "go no more out." So Christ, when He, through the Spirit, enters the sanctuary of the heart, comes to remain there as an ever-abiding and glory-manifesting presence. He enters His temple, to "go no more out."

A young lady, the daughter of a distinguished minister, met with a crushing sorrow, which completely broke her spirits, and brought a fixed and impenetrable gloom over her whole being. Under this cloud she drooped on for years, with no hope of sunlight. At length, a dear lady friend, our informant, induced her to read the work on "The Baptism of the Holy Ghost." Convinced of the truth, she sought and received "the Promise of the Spirit." She immediately wrote to her friend, saying; "I have exchanged my sighing for singing." For years previous she had taught a Bible- class of upwards of twenty young women. During these years no converting or sanctifying influence had resulted from her teachings. Now, as she appeared before that class, "under the power of the Spirit," and with "joy of the Lord as her strength," every member of it was ere long hopefully converted, and the most of them were brought to the full enjoyment of the Rest of Faith. Through the influence of these, others were brought into the class, and these, too, were converted. So the work has been going on for years. Just before stating to us these facts, our informant had attended a tea meeting, given by that young lady to her class. Upwards of forty individuals, converted through her influence, were present on that occasion, and the most of these were, with their teacher, "full of Faith, and of the Holy Ghost." Whenever believers "receive the Promise of the Spirit," "the Son of Righteousness rises upon them with healing in His wings." "The redeemed of the Lord," then return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads. They obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing flee away," and "he that is feeble among them is as David, and the house of David, as God, as the angel of the Lord before Him."

3. We specify but one other designated result of this Baptism—conscious "fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." "At that day," that is, at the time when the Comforter shall come unto you, "ye shall KNOW," says our Saviour, "that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." That is, you shall be so consciously drawn into Me, and through Me into the Father, and shall be so conscious of the fact that we are drawn into you, that "ye shall snow that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you."

The meaning of such language our Saviour explains in the verses following: "If a man love me," "I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him," "and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Still further and more distinctly is this meaning made manifest in the intercessory prayer, "As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us,"—"I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one." This "fellowship of the Spirit" is elsewhere expressed by such language as "Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith," "formed in us," "Christ in you, the hope of glory," and "God dwelling in us, and walking in us as our Father," and we loving, trusting, obeying, and honouring Him as His sons and daughters. In this fellowship "we ask and receive until our joy is full," "ask what we will, and it is done unto us," "grow up in Christ in all thins," and "shine as lights in the world," reflecting the "light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Such are some of the revealed results, as our Saviour has specified them, of "the Baptism of the Holy Ghost." What a misleading and subverting error it is to teach that all believers, many of whom "have not yet so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost," what a misleading and subverting error it is to teach such individuals that they have received "the Promise of the Spirit," and "do now have the whole Holy Ghost." Why not teach them that they are now in heaven, and have all that there is of heaven? Of the two forms of teaching it would be difficult to show which is the most unscriptural or absurd in itself. Such teaching utterly veils from the heart one of the most fundamental truths of the Gospel. Hardly less erroneous is the doctrine that all believers, even those who have consciously experienced none of its revealed results, did, when converted, " receive the Baptism of the Holy Ghost," and that what they now need and should seek, is, not the Promise of the Spirit itself, but simply an increase to fulness of what they are already possessed. The Pentecost was not an increase to fulness of what the disciples possessed before; but the Spirit, and Christ, and the Father, entering into new, and before unexperienced, relations to those disciples. So it is in all cases. Beware, reader, lest you miss the promised enduement of power, by being induced to take something else than the blessing actually set before you.

HOW TO GROW FROM FAITH TO FAITH AND FROM GLORY TO GLORY.

BY THE REV. W. E. BOARDMAN.

(Concluded from our last).

THE fulness of the glory of God is in Christ for us. It pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell in His Son, and that we should be complete in Him.

Already the fulness of God's glory is ours by God's free gift in His Son; but like all gifts it has to be accepted and taken by us to become ours in possession and realisation.

Two things are necessary to the acceptance of the glory of God in Christ by us —its revelation to us by the Spirit, and complete self-renunciation on our part.

When the glory of God was made manifest in the bush which burned and yet was not consumed, there was no darkened mind in the bush to prevent, nor any perverse will to be overcome. There was nothing in the way. God could and did take possession of it, and shine in it and shine out of it, and speak from the midst of it without limitation. But after God had drawn Moses to the bush, and spoken to him out of it, He had no little difficulty in making Moses willing to let Him have full and unhindered possession of him, and freedom to dwell in him, and speak out of him, and to lead him in leading His people forth from their cruel bondage in Egypt. All the thorns and knots, and gnarls, twists and crooks of the bush in its native wildness could not hinder the Lord for a moment or in the least from dwelling in the bush in all the glory of His effulgent grace; but the unbelief, the false humility, the fearfulness of a man mighty in word and deed, one, too, who had counted reproach for Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, seemed to come very near shutting the door of his heart against the incoming of God in the fulness of His glory.

Let us mark well that the discovery of God by us comes only by a revelation of God to us, not in word to the eye, but in power to the heart; and that it is by faith only that we can see the Invisible One in His glory. Human wisdom cannot discover God. God alone can manifest Himself to the human soul. He has, indeed, manifested Himself in Christ; and in the record of the works, and words, and ways of Christ, we may learn a great deal about Him; but we shall not by that means, without the Spirit, make his acquaintance personally, or have Him revealed in us in His glory as the brightness of the glory of the Father, and the express image of His person. We may have a head full of knowledge about Him, and not have one ray of His glory in the heart. He can be personally known and really received only through the revelation of Himself by the Spirit to our spirit, and received as so revealed by faith.

Another thing let us remark as well. Although God is one, and the fulness of His glory dwells in one, even in Christ for us, yet His glory is many-sided, like, our needs, and is actually accepted by us, and appropriated as our own, one side at a time. Notably this is true of Him in relation to our two great needs—righteousness and sanctification. Therefore it is that, according to the various expressions of God in His Word, His glory is unfolded to us, and received by us from faith to faith, and from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. This may be done bit by bit, or it may be in mass. As a matter of fact, according to the narratives given us in the Bible. of God's way of bringing one and another, into completeness of union with Himself, it would seem that by far the greater number have so interposed their own self- will, or prejudgment, or unbelief, or likes and dislikes, that it has taken a good many battles to conquer and keep them in their completeness in Christ. Perhaps nothing has stood more in God's way in this process than the persistent desire, and expectation of completeness in self, a perfected self, instead of that which is God's aim, and the only one in which His glory can dwell in us and shine out of us an unhindered fulness—a self utterly and continuously renounced, and completeness accepted in Christ. However this may be, all this laggard slowness and niggard reluctance to renounce self and accept completeness, and find it, and have it in all its fulness of glory in Christ, is an utterly unnecessary thing. More than one or two, indeed many, have been known to make clean and clear work of it, and give all and take all in that same hour when the Lord brought them to surrender themselves to Him and receive Him to themselves by faith. The battle may have been a hard one, but the victory was complete. They not only found remission of their sins, but the gift of the Holy Ghost, and continued steadfastly in the Apostolic doctrine, work, worship, fellowship, spirit, nut! power to the end.

And a great many have come and do come into completeness of union with Christ from faith to faith, and from glory to glory, by coming first to Christ and having their eyes open to see Him and their hearts to receive Him in the glory of His righteousness, shining away all their guilt and condemnation for ever, and afterwards coming and having Him revealed to them in the beauties of His holiness and in the glory of His living-presence, as the Holy One of God, the Saviour of His people from their sins, and appropriating Him by faith as their sanctification precisely as they had done in the first instance as their righteousness. In any case, however, whether by one, two, or more steps, the one only way to make progress in the Christian life is, as it was entered upon, by the surrender of self to Christ, and the acceptance of Christ in His fulness as ours by faith. We are not only to be rooted in Christ, but built up in Him. Men may lay their foundation on the rock and build up in themselves. They may take Christ as the precious corner stone, but erect their own graces, or try to do it upon Him. It is all wood, hay, and stubble, and will not stand the fire either of the Spirit or of the judgment day.

Oh! how many who have persistently been seeking self-sanctification by the help of the Spirit through long years and made no progress, have, when they have come in earnest to Christ, been quickly shown their mistake, and had their hay, wood, and stubble, gold, silver, precious stones, as it seemed to them, consumed in a moment; and themselves renewed—transfigured in mind by seeing the glory of Our Lord Jesus as made of God unto them sanctification, as before He had been made to them righteousness.

Five hundred years ago a precious and wonderful set of people were called out in a dark time, and in a region of great darkness, and shone forth in all the glory of Him who dwelt in the bush. They were called "Friends of God." The history of the way in which they came into the fulness of light in Christ was this. Having much light already, they were in earnest for more; knowing the forgiveness of their sins through faith in Jesus, they longed for holiness of heart and life. They were assembled in considerable numbers, and the question was asked, "How far may we be saved from sin in this life?"

The answer to this question, such as it was, did not satisfy them, and they requested one of their number to answer it at some future time. He said "Brethren, this is a great question. I must have time.

"How much?"

"A month."

"Take it."

He did take it, and at the end of it asked another month, and so on to the third. At last he came before them with a shining face and a glad heart and free. He had come to Jesus with the question, and Jesus had manifested Himself to him in His living invisible presence, love, wisdom, and power as the Saviour of His people from their sins, and been so received by faith. From faith to faith he had grown from glory to glory in this new transition, more than in all the previous years of his Christian life. And now that he had found the secret of this growth he gave his whole soul up to making it known to others. One and another received his testimony, and sought the Lord, with all their heart, and found Him in His fulness of grace and glory. This was the rise of the "Friends of God."

Now, five hundred years have flown, and not very far from that spot, as the facts rise to memory, there is a parish which is in itself a burning bush, sending its wooing, winsome light over continents and seas even to remote lands, and into the deepest African darkness of the heathen world.

This parish was large enough to over-task, its young pastor. He was in earnest, but saw the need of power. The words, "be ye filled with the Spirit, were brought home to him as having in them the command-promise of the needful power. He came with them to the Lord Himself. His expectation was to be endued with power in himself by the Spirit. He waited, waited, waited, and at last despaired, gave up, let himself go as he was into the hands of the Lord. Then came dawning into his mind and heart the fact that his completeness was in Christ his Head, and not in himself, and that his union with Christ, according to the provision, purpose, and power of God, was to be as close and vital as that of any member of his own body with its head. He believed, received, and confessed Christ as his Saviour from sin, and as Head over him in all things. From that glad hour must be dated a now era in the work of God in the parish. Step by step every need of the place was met. It became thoroughly Christian, pauperism ceased, vice and crime died out, education flourished, economic interests prospered, the church was full, and all as far as man could see were converted to God.

This done, the heart of pastor and people turned toward mission work. They were in the interior, but built a ship at a sea port, and, while building, trained a colony of missionaries, a community complete in every trade and calling, each one having been trained to be also a missionary. They shipped and planted one, two, three, such missionary colonies one after another, and so are fulfilling the great commission.

Would it not be a grand and glorious thing if other pastors and other parishes should learn this secret of the way to grow from faith to faith and from glory to glory? God hasten the day. Amen. And Amen.

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COMPLETENESS OF THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM.

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BY REV. WM. JONES, M.D., TOLEDO, OHIO, U.S.
"All things are yours."—1 Cor. iii. 21.

GOD is essential love; He keeps nothing exclusively for Himself, but imparts all—gives Himself even, in the fulness of His perfections. All this He gave to man in its completeness at the creation, by appointing him to the lordship of His heritage. This supremacy man lost in the fall, and became the slave of the circumstances he was appointed to rule. In the work of redemption this honour is restored to him in Jesus Christ, who is exalted to universal power and authority. In this power and glory believers are invited to share, through union with Him. Everything in Him is thus made to subserve the purpose of His love in them. The Christian system is not one of narrowness and bigotry. These qualities sometimes inhere in its followers through no fault of its teachings. The system itself stands alone as an emancipator. To strike the shackles from mind and limb is its distinctive mission: Christianity seeks to sunder the chain of ignorance and prejudice from man's encumbered soul by its precepts, by its revelations of truth, and by the persuasive power of love.

By nature Paul, for example, was an egotist; by training he was a bigot; in practice he was a persecutor pursuing to the death for opinion's sake; by grace he was liberated from the bondage of self and became a cosmopolite of all ages. He became a star of the first magnitude, a star whose orbit swept round the farthest outlying planets of truth, and across the richest fields of religious experience. "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." According to this formula, the Christian system comprehends everything that is valuable in the whole range of history, philosophy, science, and experience. In religious matters half systems, like half truths, being incomplete, are dangerous in their tendency. To reject any portion of God's precious gift of salvation mars the symmetry of the whole. By rejecting the crowning glory of Christ's work, which is experimental holiness, we obscure the objective point of his entire divine plan, which is to "purify unto himself a peculiar people." Yielding either of those two points we give up the divine religion, and make one of our own—make it of divine material, but human in its construction, and entirely human just at the point where human nature most of all needs the divine workmanship, the elimination from the moral nature of inherent depravity—a work which none other than God can do.

The clergy of various denominations have uttered their earnest and eloquent warnings against the danger of putting undue emphasis upon any one truth—of giving special prominence to any one doctrine. In this they have become, as they should be, special pleaders for symmetry. At the same time, not a few of them protest against all special efforts for the promotion of holiness. But holiness is, in truth, the climax of Christ's work in the soul, and is not attainable without all of that which in God's order must of necessity precede it, and which of its self would be incomplete and out of proportion.

We concede that any undue magnifying of any disjointed part of a system is destructive of the whole. Any separation of a part from the whole destroys its harmony of proportion. Hence the rejection of experimental holiness from the Christian system is not only destructive of its beauty, but also of its power and substance. Holiness without the basal truths that underlie it, if its existence were then possible, would be an inverted column; but without this crowning glory the Christian system is a broken column. If to give holiness prominence is a blemish, to eliminate it is an offence against God. Christianity, therefore, must be a complete system and not merely an accumulation of facts, any one of which may be rejected without loss, and all of which are at the discretion of the receiver. Man is in need of the whole; as a sinner, to save him perfectly from sin; as a Christian, to keep him pure and give rotundity and completeness to his character.

This, no partial or emasculated system can do. Hence God makes provision in the gospel not only for perfect purity but for unlimited growth. As a converted man may remain unsanctified, and in a limited sense be unholy because he does not receive all the truth, even so may holy people remain narrow and circumscribed in thought and life, because they receive but a fraction of the inheritance of truth. In making special efforts for the promotion of holiness we do not dishonour, ignore, or throw into the shade any one truth of God; we only make special what He has resealed as ultimate in all the teachings and revelations of His Word.

GOSPEL POWER.

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BY REV. GEORGE WARNER.

"FOR what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh," etc.—Romans, viii. 3, 4.

The epistle to the Romans should be studied as one grand argument, as an argument on the subject of salvation from sin, by faith in the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ—salvation for every member of the human race who will accept it on the conditions laid clown by Jehovah. Detached portions which are only illustrative of the great argument have been taken up, and used as the foundation of doctrines the very opposite to those taught by the apostle, and the very opposite of the benevolence of God's infinite heart. The seventh and eighth chapters should never be severed in thought. If these are studied in connection by any average mind, it would seem impossible to fall into the error of a certain church dignitary, who wrote that the seventh chapter is "a true portraiture of the experience of Paul and of all Christians to the end of time." If his eyes had been free from certain doctrinal prejudices, he could not but have seen that it is impossible that the two distinct experiences detailed in the two chapters can be those of one and the same person at one and the same time. The passage at the head of this paper is in the eighth chapter, and in that chapter, reader, you may find your experience by faith in the Son of God. The verses quoted teach us, first of all—

What God requires of man. By the term "flesh" in this connection we understand man degenerate—man under the dominion of sinful inclinations and appetites. God requires the reverse of this, the supreme dominion of the moral and spiritual over the sensual. This was the purpose of our original creation. We were created, not for sensual servitude, but to have dominion over our own spirits and propensities, mental and physical. God is our original owner and sovereign possessor. To Him we were created to do free service, and under His will to have dominion over our own immortal spirits and mortal flesh, and over all visibilities around us. In rude ages, when one had built a castle another might possess it, but not by the owner's consent. In our degenerate state, Satan, through the flesh, has, by our consent, full dominion over us. "The Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil." "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned (to destruction) sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law (the purity and subjection to the Divine will which the law requires) might be fulfilled in us." Hence He requires that we shall not "let sin reign in our mortal bodies, that we should obey it in the lusts thereof, nor yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield ourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God." In Christ we may die unto sin and live unto God, and are hence required to "reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." In the passage under consideration we are taught that—

The law cannot produce this. The law furnishes no provision for pardon, nor any motives sufficient to destroy the influence of the "flesh," and bring man to obedience. This does not arise from any lack of goodness in the law itself. All sane minds must acknowledge that "the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good." What a heaven it would create were its precepts everywhere obeyed from the heart! The law, however, has been broken by man, and it is in vain that we look for anything but condemnation from that quarter. We are not only condemned to death by the law, but are powerless against the flesh which holds dominion over us, and are without aid from the law in any attempts we may make to save ourselves from the law of sin and death which abides in our members. With Israel, "we may follow after the law of righteousness," while we "seek it, not by faith, but as it were by deeds of law."

The inability of the law to induce in fallen man obedience to the will and law of God arises, we should ever bear in mind, from no fault in the law itself, but from our natural condition under the flesh. The law demands obedience, and "the law of the mind," the conscience, approves and seconds that demand. But the law of sin in the members" has more power than law and the conscience united, and the creature is "brought into captivity unto the law of sin in the members." Man, as a consequence, is "carnal, sold (a bond state) under sin." Law, apart from the Gospel, aggravates instead of remedying the evil which it prohibits, and "the commandment, which was ordained to life, is found to be unto death." In our natural state we are not only "without God," but "without hope in the world."

The Gospel, however, as it is also here taught, can induce obedience to the requirements of God. Moses could not take the Jews into Canaan. Joshua did that. The law, aided by the conscience, "the law of the mind," cannot induce obedience to its own requirements. Jesus can. "He can take away our sins—can break the power of all our sinful propensities —can put the law in the mind, and write it in the heart." "He can put the Spirit of God within us, and cause us to walk in God's statutes, and keep His judgments, and do them." Miss Marsh, in self-denying toil among the navvies, had brought a number of them under her influence. Some, not so influenced, had, one evening, created a disturbance, and were taken into custody by the police. Their mates, for the instant, thought they must rescue their associates, and the police would have been no match for them. Miss Marsh came on the scene, just in time to prevent the encounter—her presence held back the disturbers. They said, afterwards, "We could easily have whacked the police, but we should have brought tears into them two eyes, and we couldn't do that!" She had thrown a spell over them, and in her presence they were held from wrongdoing. In her presence anger, and wrath, and the spirit of violence could not abide in their hearts. So, when Christ, through the Spirit, "dwells in our hearts by faith," and we thereby "become rooted and grounded in love," nothing but love can abide with Him in that inner sanctuary. "Nothing unclean can enter in," or remain under His eye, or continue in His presence. "He that abideth in Him sinneth not." "Walking in the Spirit, we cannot fulfil the lusts of the flesh." The old Grecian story tells us that when Ulysses sailed past the isle of the sirens and heard the sorcerers' music on the shore, to prevent himself and crew from landing he filled their ears with wax, and bound himself to the mast with knotted thongs. He thus passed in safety the fatal strand. But when Orpheus went by this island he set up better music than the sea-nymphs could produce, and needed neither wax nor thongs, but passed the shore not only in safety but in triumph. All we want is Christ on board, with our ears attent to "the gracious words that proceed out of His mouth." He, will make melody in the soul till it is so charmed and brought into sympathy with His Spirit, that it shall never again listen either to the flesh, the world, or the devil.

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THE MEASURE OF MORAL EXCELLENCE REQUIRED OF MEN ALWAYS THE SAME.

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THE requirement of personal holiness is not peculiar to the New Testament. It pervades all the dispensations of light, underlies all moral laws and precepts given to men, and is set forth as the sum of religious duty, and the highest privilege of God's people in all ages. The apparently low standard of manners and piety that obtained among the patriarchs and Jews, as manifested in their cruel wars, their slavery, their polygamy and concubinage, and their frequent lapses into idolatry, their falsehoods and drunkenness, was due not to the acceptance of a lower grade of moral goodness, but was the result of the semi-barbarous condition of even the best society in that period of the world's history.

God did not depress and narrow His commandments to accommodate, but exercised towards, sinners the Divine attribute of forbearance when they failed, through weakness and frailty, to measure up to the uniform and unchangeable standard of rectitude. He did not sanction, but suffered, slavery, polygamy, duplicity, and the bar- barous cruelties of war, not because He approved them, but because the poor benighted creatures could not rise immediately to the conception and practice of the lofty gauge of Christian civilization and gospel ethics.

Accordingly it is, written: "The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent (Acts xvii. 39). That God merely endured wrong, but did not approve it, nor lower His standard in extenuation of it, is evident from facts like the following. First: David was accepted and declared to be a man after God's own heart, and yet, because he was a man of blood and cruelty, the Lord, as a mark of general condemnation of all his crimes, refused to allow him to build the sacred Temple. Second, a plurality of wives was allowed in persons, and under circumstances which seemed to imply approval, and yet was only, sufferance. The ordinance of God from the beginning was that man should have a wife, and not wives, and to her he was bound to cleave for life, the two becoming an indissoluble unit. The words of Christ are explicit. He said, "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife (not wives); and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together let no man put asunder. They say onto Him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so " (Mat. 19, 5).

We have given this degree of prominence to these cases to illustrate the proposition that the measure of moral excellence required of men has always been the same, and then to open the way to show that perfect personal holiness has always been that measure, the only difference between ancient and modern times being simply this—that as the light becomes more clear and abundant, we are held up to that standard with greater stringency and under circumstances of more serious responsibility. The original image impressed upon human nature indicated the grade and quality of moral sanctity which was to be man's crowning grace, and the standard of goodness in all coming time. When our creation was yet in idea, in the thought of God, he said, "let us make man in our own image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1, 27).

What this image was we learn from the New Testament where we are commanded to replace it, "That you put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that you put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. iv. 22). Here is a direct reference to the original pattern which also contains a clear definition of its nature. It was not corporeal nor intellectual, but moral. It was "an image of righteousness and true holiness." Now to this image as a standard the church has been held in all ages. Being lost by sin it is the prime object of redemption to reproduce it. Accordingly it has been made the major duty of all men to seek, attain, and cultivate it. As God could not have created man in any other image by reason of his own inherent holiness, so he cannot, for the same reason, require less than its complete renewal and practical perpetuity. It was enjoined upon Abram when God said unto him, "I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect" (Gen. xvii. 1). It was commanded in the recapitulation of the Decalogue, by Moses, in the words, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deut. vi. 5). It was prefigured by all the holy consecrations and cleansings of the Levitical institute, while its necessity, nature and purchase price, were symbolized by the bloody expiation and holy priestly offices, robes and badges that belonged to the Jewish ceremonial. It is the golden thread that runs through all the prophets; permeating their precepts, predictions, promises, eloquence, and songs, with a beauty of spirituality and holiness that resemble the fine gold with which the inner and more sacred parts of the Temple were overlaid.

It was the theme of David in his dying hour, when he delivered his last charge to his son, saying, "Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father and serve Him with a perfect heart and a willing mind" (1 Chron. xxviii. 9). It was the highest conception of Isaiah when he said, "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness, the unclean shall not pass over it" (Isa. xxxv.. 8). It was the richest passage in the poetry of David, and the sweetest prayer his lips ever uttered for salvation personal to himself, and applicable to all men. "Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me; wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity; and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow " (Ps: li.)

It was the most evangelical vision of Ezekiel which he puts forth in the double form of a prediction and a promise, introducing God Himself as the speaker. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean, from all your, filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them" (Ezekiel xxxvi. 25). It was the most vivid and beautiful view of the character and offices of Christ ever entertained by the prophet Malachi, who, standing on the border of gospel times, and in the daybreak of its coming light, says. "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His Temple, even the messengers of His covenant, whom ye delight in; behold He shall come saith the Lord of Hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? For He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap. And He shall sit as a refiner and as a purifier of silver, and He shall purify the sons of Levi; and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness" (Mal. iii. 1).

Of course, when the Gospel dispensation burst upon the world, like the freshness and beauty of spring, light upon this subject brightened from prophetic twilight into the effulgence of perfect day. It was like the sun coming out from a partial eclipse to walk the heavens without a cloud to obstruct his beams. It was the fulfilment of the beautiful passage, "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land" (Cant. ii. 11.)

John the Baptist ushers in the new dispensation by giving pre-eminence to holiness. His statement clearly shows that thorough work and complete cleansing were to characterise the new administration: "And now, also, the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire. I, indeed, baptize you with water unto repentance, but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into His garner; but He will barn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matt. iii. 10). Here is the beginning of that intense glow of holy fire to which all the preparations of Biblical and religious antiquity pointed. It is the consummation provided for by the Father's love, the Son's sacrifice, and the Spirit's offices.

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SPIRITUAL HEALTH.

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BY THOMAS D. MARSHALL.

THERE are six simple, pleasant, but immutable conditions upon the fulfilment of which depends the maintenance of our physical health. We must (1) rest, (2) be clean, (3) eat pure food, (4) breathe pure air, (5) live in light, and (6) labour or take exercise. It will be found that these conditions symbolize and express varied relations in which our glorious Saviour and Healer stands toward us, and in which it is necessary that we should experimentally know Him, if we would enjoy that inestimable bliss and blessedness, "Spiritual Health."

REST.—The Physician's first care is to give his patients rest, and the strong man cannot maintain his strength without it. Perfect soul-rest is a primary and indispensable condition of spiritual health. When Christ says, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," He means that He will actually remove sorrow, fear, and care from the hearts of those who trust Him to this end.

He gives rest from sorrow. A lady of my acquaintance was plunged into great sorrow by some exceedingly painful circumstances; she did not then know the Lord, and her life was consuming away with grief. A friend said to her, "If you would go to the Lord Jesus and trust Him to do so, He would take your sorrow away." As soon as her Christian friend had left, she threw herself down before the Lord and trusted Him to do this for her. She says, "He heard my prayer, took my sorrow from my heart, and filled me there and then with His own joy. For the two years since my life has been one song of praise and gladness, and many of my friends have been led to trust themselves to Jesus through what I have told them."

He gives rest to the conscience. Twenty- eight years ago a consciousness of my unrighteousness and ill-desert brought me to Him as a Saviour. He showed me that "He had borne my sins in His own body on the tree," and so removed my burden of guilt and its accompanying foreboding of deserved judgment, giving me instead a sweet assurance of His love, which has been increasing in depth and strength until now.

He gives rest from care. When we confide our perplexities and needs to Him, He takes away our anxiety and imparts to us the peace that fills His own heart. "Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts."

Our rest in the Lord can only be in exact proportion to our self-surrender to Him. A soft couch is a better resting- place than a heap of stones, because when we lie upon it, it sustains us in every part, and not merely at points: but we only rest on our couch to the extent that we surrender ourselves to it; standing by its side we get no rest from it at all; sitting, or only partly reclining, we only get a measure of rest. To get perfect rest we must give up ourselves to it in effortless recumbency. So is it with Christ. He is always a perfect Resting-place, but He can only give us perfect rest when our entire being is utterly abandoned to Him—when we present our "bodies" to Him "a living sacrifice," and place in His hands the control of all our circumstances, and the ordering of our entire lives. This voluntary surrender of self and will is equivalent to that "taking" of His "yoke" which precedes the finding of that second and most delightful rest of soul which He promises in Matt. xi. 29. An esteemed minister stated at a public meeting, in my hearing, that about a year previously he had been impressed with the force of the promise in Isa. xxvi. 3. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee," and, knowing that He did not enjoy that perfect peace, had properly concluded that it was because his mind was not truly "stayed" on God. He saw, too, that he had not definitely obeyed the precept in Romans xii. 1, "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." As nearly as I can remember his words he said, "I went to God and presented myself to Him in the name of Jesus, I told him that I now gave my hands and feet, my whole body, my mind, my memory, and my will, my wife, children, property, reputation, and friends—all—to Him who had redeemed me. There I quietly left myself. Let me tell you a result. In the year that has passed since, many trials' and sorrows have come to me. My fellow- labourer in the Gospel died, my mother died, the Lord has taken to Himself my eldest son, my second son is now lying dangerously ill, but my mind has been kept in perfect peace, and I am in perfect peace now."

The bosom of the Son of God is the bosom of Infinite love, His arms are of Almighty strength. Fully to trust Him is to perfectly repose. "This is the Rest wherewith ye shall cause the weary to rest" (Isa. xxviii. 12).

"Blessed Jesus! Would'st thou know Him?

Give thyself entirely to Him."

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QUESTIONS ANSWERED.

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BY DR. LOWREY.

WE have received the following note:

"TO THE EDITOR OF 'DIVINE LIFE.'

"DEAR Sir,—A Christian man has become exercised in heart on the subject of holiness. He is officially connected with an Association of a religious character in which it is his office to say and do things the righteousness of which he gravely questions. If he retires from his position he will lose not only the income attached to it, but social position and probably the esteem of his friends.

"In such a case would you think it wisest to give specific advice, or to counsel him only to surrender himself and circumstances unreservedly to God, and to look alone to Him and His Word for guidance?

"Yours very sincerely."

RESPONSE.

The answer requested respects not a question of casuistry, but direction as to the giving of advice under given circumstances.

The silence of our enquirer as to the particular offices which the business relations referred to require, precludes anything but a hypothetical reply. If the acts demanded are plainly sinful because forbidden by the Word of God the anxious person should be advised to gently refuse to perform those specific acts on the ground of conscientious scruples, but not to leave his position if the business as a whole is legitimate. If he cannot be allowed thus to discriminate he should be advised to resign his place at any cost.

But if the offices referred to are not such as we find expressly, or by fair implication, forbidden in the Word of God, but belong to that class of practices which are of questionable consistency with holiness, then the anxious person should be counselled to surrender himself unreservedly to God and to look alone to Him and His word for guidance.

In settling such question, four things should be kept constantly in mind. 1st: The law of expediency; some things are lawful but inexpedient on the ground of their relative injuriousness. 2nd: The duty of abstaining from the very appearance of evil and of maintaining rigid prudence and circumspection. 3rd: As the Bible is a book of general principles in opposition to a code of minute statutes it must be recollected that many things have been prohibited in general terms which are not specifically condemned. 4th: The dictates of a tender conscience, scripturally enlightened, should in all cases be obeyed whether supported by the scruples of others or not. It is never safe to borrow the conscience of another man, because special light and specific duty may make a pursuit wrong to one which may not be so to others. "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin (Jas. iv.).

It seems from the teachings of Paul that a man who violates his convictions involves himself in sin, though the act itself may not be intrinsically wrong. "But to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean to him it is unclean" (Rom. xiv. 14).

On the other hand, care should be taken not to carry our scruples so far as to create a morbid conscience. "Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth."

The spirit is promised in just such emergencies to "guide us into all truth." "Let us pray."

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ERROR CORRECTED.

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"Christian Perfection in the Light of Scripture."

THE above is the title of an article of nearly nine columns, written by the Rev. Canon Garbett, M.A., an article cited in the May number of the Pathway of Power from the Christian Advocate and Review of January, 1874. The editor of the Pathway speaks of it as a "most valuable article." The venerable author discusses the subject under two distinct questions. "(1). Is the doctrine of perfection taught in Scripture? (2) What is the perfection that is taught?" These questions fairly and distinctly raise the only really important issues that divide believers upon the subject, and we are quite happy that an individual of such standing, and the Pathway of Power through him, have led off in the discussion of this central doctrine of Scripture. The perfect candour with which the whole subject is discussed in that article would, conscience aside, be an admonition to us to "walk by the same rule" in all our utterances, and will be a sufficient apology for our remarks upon the subject. Christian discussion of differences of opinion honours our Divine religion. Without further remarks, we proceed to a consideration of the article before us.

THE FIRST QUESTION our author answers in the affirmative, and fully verifies his position. "To the question, Is the doctrine of perfection taught in Scripture?, I unhesitatingly answer," he says, "in the affirmative." "That, in precise and emphatic words, perfection is both taught and inculcated, as a thing attainable in the present life, and which ought to be attained, admits of no question." No individual, we are quite confident, will attempt to answer the arguments by which our author verifies the above statements, the teaching of the Scriptures cited being too plain, and specific, and absolute in their meaning to admit of doubt or denial.

The main question.—The question, "What is the perfection that is taught" in Scripture? and consequently imposed upon us not only as a duty but a privilege, every one must perceive to be a question of supreme importance in itself, and as the main enquiry now before us. In his answer to this question, Canon Garbett, if not self-consistent, is very plain and explicit. "The end of man," he says, "is God, and the man whose undivided being is devoted to God is the perfect man." "The telos (perfection) of redemption is the salvation and sanctification of the whole man—body, soul, and spirit the teleios is the man in whom it is accomplished, and who has become, in the renewal of the soul into the image of God, and the redemption and purification of the dying flesh, the very temple of the Holy Ghost." "Perfection," he says again, " is the entire dedication of the whole undivided self to God; not of the reason without the heart, nor of the heart without the understanding, nor of the understanding without the conscience, nor of the conscience without the will, nor of the will without the service of the body; but of the whole undivided undistracted being surrendered to the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God." We have, in this last sentence the condition of perfection and not the thing itself. It is God's prerogative, after we have "surrendered our whole undivided being to the guidance of the Holy Spirit," to "sanctify us wholly," to "make us perfect in every good work to do His will," and to "put His Spirit within us, and to cause us to walk in His statutes, and to keep His judgments and do them." When we are by the Spirit and grace of God thus sanctified, thus perfected in every good work, and caused to "stand perfect and complete in all the will of God," then, and only then, are we perfect in Christ Jesus."

If our Canon had stopped here, and had not afterwards limited and qualified his utterances so as to give another and different aspect to his whole doctrine, we should have endorsed his teaching almost or quite without qualification. The subject, however, is not thus left. Let the reader carefully consider the limitations and qualifications referred to. "I believe, therefore," he says, "that perfection is presented in the Word as an attainable state of grace, but that it consists not in a state of aimlessness, but in that entire supremacy of the Spirit of God over the living man which sanctifies the entire being (the italics are the author's) not wholly, as our version erroneously has it, but the whole of it, leaving no part, no, not even a secret corner of the entire soul, that is not filled by the Divine presence and consecreted to the Divine service." "Sinless we shall be I believe, perfectly and for ever; but it will be in a future state." "Meanwhile we are complete in Christ." Christian perfection, as hitherto defined and universally understood, implies the present absence of all sin, and a present "standing perfect and complete in all the will of God." As defined specifically by our Canon, "it consists in the entire dedication of the whole undivided self to God," "NOT WHOLLY," that is, with a part of every whole that is dedicated kept back. As distinguished from the doctrine as hitherto defined and understood that of Canon Garbett to be rightly apprehended, must be denominated The Doctrine of Imperfect Christian Perfection. We think that the justice and propriety of the above distinction will not be questioned even by Canon Garbett himself. Upon this doctrine of Imperfect Christian Perfection as set forth by our Canon we remark:

REMARKS UPON THIS DOCTRINE.

I. The doctrine as stated by our author involves the most palpable contradiction. In the state which he describes, he tells us there is "the salvation and sanctifcation of the whole man, body, soul, and spirit," "the devotion of the undivided being to God," "the whole undivided, undistracted, being surrendered to the guidance of the Holy Spirit," and all this to such an extent, that there is "no part, no, not even a secret corner of the entire soul, that is not filled by the Divine presence and consecrated to the Divine service." All this, he teaches, may be done, and is done, while the soul is not "sanctified wholly," but remains in the continuous commission of sin. No doctrine can, by any possibility, be self-contradictory if this is not. The same contradiction is equally palpable in our Canon's use of the term "wholly." "The whole undivided, undistracted being," he says, "is surrendered to the guidance of the Holy Spirit" with "no part, no not even a secret corner of the entire soul, that is not filled with the Divine presence and consecrated to the Divine service." All this may and does occur, he teaches, while no part is "wholly" consecrated, or "wholly" sanctified. We have, then, a whole which does not include all its parts, or a whole which is not a whole.

2. The error of Canon Garbett is based upon a palpable misconstruction of the words, "sanctify you wholly." This, he tells us, does not mean "sanctify the entire being wholly, as our version wrongly has it, but the whole of it." The original word here rendered "wholly" is one of the strongest words in the Greek or any other language. It is made up of two words, each of which means entireness, to wit, olos all, and telos perfection. The literal and true meaning and rendering of the entire passage is undeniably, as the best lexicographers have it, this: The very God of peace sanctify you in all respects unto perfection. If the meaning is not "sanctify your entire being wholly," no words in any language can, by any possibility, express that idea. No error in interpretation can be more obvious and undeniable than is that under consideration.

3. Our next remark is this: it would be absolutely sinful in us, granting that we have not yet attained to perfection in this form, to seek to attain it. The Scriptures absolutely prohibit sin in all its forms and degrees, and as absolutely require full and entire obedience to "ALL the will of God." For us to aim at anything short of this is sin. A standard of obedience affirmed to be below this, to wit, the dedication of all to God, but "not wholly," is the standard which this new doctrine sets before us. Suppose we should aim to "surrender our whole undivided, undistracted, being ('not wholly') to the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God." Would God accept our offering? The aim, the intent, to make such a presentation would be an insult to our Father and God.

4. Canon Garbett presents perfection in the sense in which he has explained the term, as "taught and inculcated (in the Scriptures) as a thing attainable in the present and which ought to be attained." In proof of this, he cites, among other passages, the command and admonition of our Saviour: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." To suppose, as our Canon does, that the perfection thus inculcated is "that entire supremacy of the Spirit of God over the living man which sanctifies the entire being, 'not wholly,' implies that Christ inculcates and requires this partial obedience, and consequently prohibits obedience which is wholly and truly perfect and complete." When the bible requires a specific thing, or form of obedience, it, by necessary implication, prohibits whatever is opposite to, or diverse from, that specific thing. No doctrine can be more unscriptural than that which thus imputes to our Saviour the positive inculcation of a specific moral state, or form of character and life, which has in it the element of sin. Further observations must be deferred for future consideration.

———

THOUGHTS FOR THE CLOSET.

——

"PERFECTING HOLINESS."—"There is a sort of God's dear servants," says Jeremy Taylor, "who walk in perfectness; who "perfect holiness in the fear of God; and they have a degree of charity, and Divine knowledge more than we can discourse of, and more certain than the demonstrations of geometry. . . But I shall say no more of this at this time . . and they who never touched it with their fingers may secretly, perhaps, laugh at it in their hearts, and be never the wiser. As a flame touches a flame, and combines into splendour and glory, so is the spirit of man united unto Christ by the Spirit of God. These are the friends of God, and they best know God's mind; and they only that are so know how much such men do know."

——

"INACTIVITY or FAITH."—"It is," says Archbishop Leighton, "the inactivity of faith in Jesus that keeps us so imperfect and wrestling still with our corruptions, without any advancement. We wrestle in our own strength too often, and so are justly, yea, necessarily, foiled; it cannot be otherwise till we make Him our strength. This we are still forgetting, and had need to be put in mind of and ought frequently to remind ourselves—WE WOULD BE AT DOING FOR OURSELVES, and insensibly fall into this folly, even after much smarting for it, if we be not watchful against it. There is this wretched natural independency in us that is so hard to beat out. All our projectings are but castles in the air, imaginary buildings without foundations till once laid on Jesus. But never shall we find heart peace, sweet peace, and progress in holiness till we be driven from it to make Him ALL our strength—till we be brought to do nothing, to attempt nothing, to hope or expect nothing but in Him; and then shall we indeed find His fulness and all-sufficiency; and be more than conquerors through Him who hath loved us."

——

THE SPIRIT'S ENLIGHTENMENT.—"There are times in a believer's spiritual life," says Rev. J. Vaughan, of Brighton, "when he is conscious of such a marked effusion of the Holy Spirit to his heart, that all that went before is as nothing. And though, perhaps, he has had reason to hope that he was indeed previously a man born again, yet, at such dates, he seemed to live a new life, that made the old life all seem as nothing at all. When a great invisible reality begins to stand out to him in clearness, his soul puts on strength; and roots, which before had played upon the surface, now rivet themselves down to the breast."

It is only to those who have not had a similar enlightenment that the above and the following statements will appear mysterious or incredible. "I was," says a writer in Faith Words, U.S., "at Dr. Palmer's meeting (New York), Feb. 6th, and heard two ministers of years and experience say that they had known more of God the last two weeks than in all their past experience." It is only the Spirit of God, permit us to add, that can impart to the mind a real knowledge of God, or of "the things of God." When the writer of this left "the School of the Prophets," he did so with the distinct and proud apprehension that he had mastered the science of theology, and "was confident of himself" as "a guide of the blind, a light of them that are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes," and of old disciples also. He soon became distinctly conscious, however, that his knowledge of God, and of "the things of God," had very little power to vitalize his own heart, or the hearts of believers. These eternal verities were to him like the stars of which he had studied in the schools, vast, but immeasurably distant and unvitalizing realities. At length he became distinctly conscious of the great central truth that "the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God," and by faith, in utter self-renunciation, entered as an earnest enquirer the school of Christ, there to be "taught of God." There, "as the Spirit took of the things of Christ and showed them to his mind," and "showed him plainly to the Father," lifted the veil, and enabled him to "behold with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord," and "caused all God's goodness to pass before him," and above all when, through the Spirit and in the glory of, His resurrection life, "Christ and the Father came unto him and made their abode with him," all things pertaining to "God and the things of God," and all things pertaining to his inner experiences and life, became so new "that all that went before was as nothing," and, for a time, he seriously doubted whether, up to that period, he had been a Christian at all. Yet he has not a shadow of doubt that during those eighteen years of dim twilight he had been a real Christian. He wandered on during those years, however, like the men whom Paul met at Ephesus, who had been believers during a longer period and "had not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." "The Promise of the Spirit," reader, if "you have not received the Holy Ghost since you believed," awaits your faith. When that Promise is received, then, and not till then, will your proper Christian life begin.

"UNITY OF THE SPIRIT."—"We may take notice," says W. Dell, Master of Gonville and Caius College, 1652, "of a remarkable difference between nature and grace: for nature of one makes many, for we all who are many, even a whole world of men, were but one in Adam. But grace of many makes one, for the Holy Spirit, who is as fire, melts all the faithful into one mass or lump, and makes of many one body—one thing. Yea, it makes them one in the unity of God, according to that of Christ: 'That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us.' Mark the words, for they are wonderful, 'that they all may be one;' that is, that all believers who are many among themselves may all be made one. One! How one? 'As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee.' That is, as Thou and I, being two Persons, are yet but one God; after this highest example of unity, let them be made one in Us. As long as they remain in themselves they are many, for this unity is not in themselves, but they are one in us who are one; that is, how much the saints, by the Spirit, are carried into the Father and the Son, who are one; so much, also, are they made one, not only with the Father and the Son, but also with one another. You may see in the Acts how the multitude of believers after they had received the Spirit, so far forth as they had received the Spirit, were of one heart and of one mind."

———

HEAVENS PLAN.

Oh, how unlike the complex works of man,

Heaven's easy, artless, unencumbered plan!

No meretricious graces to beguile,

No clustering ornaments to clog the pile;

From ostentation, as from weakness free

It stands, like the cerulean arch we see,

Majestic in its own simplicity.

Inscribed above the portal, from afar,

Conspicuous as the brightness of a star,

Legible only by the light they give,

Stand the soul-quickening words, Believe and Live.

COWPER.

———

Intelligence.

Light from the Army.

The following very important communication appeared in the Christian of May 16. Our readers will find rich instruction in its perusal.

INDWELLING SIN.

BY FRANK GRAVES, 20TH HUSSARS.

"How does the Christian stand in relation to 'the sin that dwelleth in him'? I think a very satisfactory answer will be found to this important question in Rom. vi. and vii. 1-6; and it is an answer which will be at variance with the daily experience of a large number of God's dear children. One meets so many who are earnestly striving to get 'free from sin'—to make, or shake, themselves 'free from sin;' and others who are as earnestly striving to conquer sin by striving against it, to get it under in some way or other. One also meets with many who are trying to make themselves holy; others, again, living busy lives in work for God, try to copy Christ; and, depending partly on their own efforts, trust Him to help them when they think they fail.

"But how different the whole life becomes when one finds out that 'our salvation is of God' altogether; that He not only saves from the 'penalty of sin' now, and from the 'presence of sin' when he comes for us to take us to Himself (Thess. iv.), but that it is also his to save from the 'power of sin' now as well; that He has provided for his dear children a condition of 'freedom from sin' is the present, freedom from the enegeia —energy, power of sin. How do we obtain freedom from the penalty of sin? Is it not by simple faith, belief, trust? We receive it as a gift from Him; He gives the deliverance, having first of all wrought it for us. Now, do we not by faith, belief, or trusting, also realize that we shall receive deliverance from the presence of sin when we see Him? Surely He will give this also to us as a gift then; we shall have no more part in delivering ourselves from the presence of sin than we have had in delivering ourselves from the penalty.

"But how differently many act with regard to the power of sin! Is there a single passage in the whole New Testament which tells us to strive to make ourselves free, to strive to be free from sin? Not one. Is there any passage in the whole New Testament which tells us to strive against it, to bring it into subjection? Not one. Let us keep in mind that our subject is 'the sin that dwelleth in us'—the flesh (sarx)—the 'old man.'

"Rom. vi. and vii. 1-6 shows us that every condition and relationship in which we stood with regard to 'sin' and to God before conversion is absolutely reversed on conversion by virtue of the death of Christ. The new condition, relation, and position (once for all created and provided for us by God antecedently), when apprehended by faith is then practically enjoyed.

"That is to say, the death of Christ is the legal deed of separation from our old ties—the legal deed hereby the old partnership was dissolved; it is the legal bill of divorcement from our old husband, by virture of which we are 'married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead.' To put it in another way, the death of Christ is the door of escape from our old ties and condition unto fellowship or partner ship in his risen life; and in the power of that life in that newness of life, as we walk in that fellowship we enjoy the 'freedom from' or the deliverance from' the power of sin.

"The following columns will, I trust, show that the various relationships in which we stood 'to sin' and to God have been exactly reversed:

I was . . . . 'In Sin,' I am . . . . In Christ.

'Dead in sin. Alive in Christ (Rom. vi. 11)

'Dead to God. Dead to sin (Rom. vi. 11)

'Under law. Under grace (Rom. vi. 14)

'Under condemnation Justified (Rom. vi. 7)

'Rom. vi. 20—Servant of sin. Servant of righteousness (vi. 18)

Servant of sin. Servant of God (Rom. vi. 22)

'Rom. vi. 20—Free from

righteousness Free from Sin (Rom. vi. 18, 22)

'Married to sin. Married to Christ (Rom. vii. 4):

(Fruit of the union is (Fruit of the union is

"Fruit unto death") (Rom. ("fruit unto God") (Rom.

vii. 5; Gal. v. 19-21.) Vii. 4: see their names in Gal. v. 22-23).

"No one will question the fact that in our unconverted state we were absolutely 'dead in sin,' and, therefore, 'dead to God,' but how many truly pious souls are afraid to say that they are absolutely 'alive in Christ,' and ' in Him dead to sin.' Let us remember, the antithesis above is meant to show—(1) what we were ' in sin,' and (2) what we are 'in Christ,' not in ourselves apart from Christ. Again, who will deny that we were 'free from righteousness ' when we were 'in sin'? But how many can say with humble confidence 'in Christ I am free from sin'? Notice the word free (eleuqeroV); in ver. 18, 20, and 22 it has nothing to do with justification, although founded on the justification shown in verse 7 (eleuikaiwtai). eleuqeroV expresses a condition of freedom or deliverance from the power of one that held sway.

Now, where did we live as strangers to grace? 'In sin,' under law. Where were we 'free from righteousness?' 'In sin' this was our condition. What, then, is our condition as Christians? Where are we free from the law? In Christ, under grace. Where are we free from sin? In Christ; and it is only as we walk as those who have been divorced from sin and married to Christ that we enjoy the condition of freedom or deliverance that God has provided for us in Him.

"Notice this: this condition is the portion of every believer, and is his quite independent of faith—that is, it is already prepared for him in the risen Christ of God; but the believer's enjoyment of this condition does depend entirely upon his apprehending it by faith, and it is only when the believer ceases from his own struggle to be free, and realises his union with the risen Christ, and by faith enters into the glorious liberty of soul provided for him in that blessed union, that he will know experimentally the meaning of Paul's words in Rom. viii. 2: 'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free (eleuqeroV) from the law of sin and death.' Then, having been made free (eleuqeroV) by the Son, we are free indeed (John viii.). There is a precious command and promise in Gal. v. 16, 17: 'Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.' Why? Rom. viii. 13 gives the answer. The Spirit mortifies the flesh; the Spirit is an element in which the flesh (sarx) cannot bear fruit, just as the Spirit of God could not bear fruit in the flesh, for the flesh is enmity towards God.

"Then it is manifest that it is altogether our own fault when we do fall, for we read that it is when a man is drawn away of his own lust (from fellowship with Christ in the spirit), and enticed, that lust conceives in his soul and brings forth sin and death. How, then, can this be prevented? Walk yielded wholly up to Christ, in order that his Spirit only may bring forth fruit in the soul, fruit unto God, for 'he that abideth in Him sinneth not;' but the soul of the child of God wants something beyond negation, something positive. We have a very precious word in John xv. 5. —'He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.'

"Then whenever the 'old man' does 'try to draw you away,' or in any way to assert himself, don't try to struggle with him, don't parley with him; turn at once to the new Husband, reckon yourself alive in Him, and dead to the old husband (it is the position God has given you); and as you so do you will find that He does keep that you have committed to Him in well-doing. He Himself working in you to will and to do of his good pleasure.

"Therefore (if I may apply the text Gal. v. 1 here) 'Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage.'

" 'Buried with Christ, and raised in Him too,

What is there left for me to do?

Simply to cease from struggling and strife,

Simply to walk in newness of life.' "

——

Mrs. Mumford.

The Missionaries labouring for the salvation of souls in the East are not expecting, and certainly not receiving, either help or encouragement from the Greek Church, whether in the Grecian or Russian dominions.

In the City of Athens, a flourishing female school has recently been paralyzed by the withdrawal of all the native children except a very few protestant, because the lady teachers decline to adorn the walls with a picture of the "Virgin," and allow Greek priests to visit the school regularly, and catechise the children—priests so ignorant as to be scarcely able to teach their own formula of faith.

A letter just received from Mrs. Mumford, at Philippopolis, gives a similar experience. Quite a number of interesting pupils by order of the Bishop have been withdrawn from the school she had opened since the cessation of hostilities, but six remained, including two orphans whom she calls her own. She is well assured that there would be no difficulty in procuring paying pupils, but for the determined opposition of the Bishop, which can neither be resisted nor overcome.

After much prayer Providence seems to indicate the opening of a "Home for Girls." Her house is ample. She has been strangely provided with furniture, cooking utensils, and dishes. Two children are already in the house. "The Pastor of a little protestant community twenty miles away" writes begging her to take six little girls and says she can have more if she will.

There is only one thing that causes this self-sacrificing noble woman to hesitate for a moment. These little mouths must be fed. Although she has the promise of God, and the Pastor thinks to take and educate them would be for the Glory of God, yet she prudently declines undue haste in deciding to take upon herself additional responsibilities.

Her heart burns with grateful love for the generous help already received. She would gladly send a personal letter to each donor expressive of her appreciation if she knew where and how to address them.

The past encourages and strengthens her faith for the future and her school. An avenue for usefulness unexpected, but of incalculable consequences, is opened to her. May we not hope that friends will still remember with their prayers and bounty this dear christian woman, who has shown such marvellous heroism in the hour of peril, and amid the carnage of war; that those poor little innocent immortals thrown on her hands may be supported.

New and Important Religious Movement in Mexico.

Recent arrivals from the United States give an account of a great religious movement in Mexico. Some seventy-two congregations have already openly seceded from the Catholic Church in that country, and have placed themselves alongside of the Old Catholic movement in Europe. These seceding congregations have gained possession of a large number of large and important houses of worship, and have entered upon their new career with a seemingly bright future before them.

——

THE English Baptist mission to the valley of the Congo River is organized. The missionaries selected have had experience among the tribes of the West Coast.

——

Progress of the Cause in the United States.

FROM statements of facts given in our late numbers, our readers are aware that the state of the cause of Scriptural Holiness was never so hopeful as now in Europe and in missionary fields in all heathen lands. The same is true of the state of the cause in the United States. "From all sections," says the Editor of the Advocate of Christian Holiness, Philadelphia, U.S., "we receive information of the progress of the work." He then presents the following facts in illustration.

"In Philadelphia the work was never so hopeful. The Friday Meeting at 1018 Arch-street, is in all respects the most spiritual of any which we have ever attended. The room is not only crowded almost to suffocation, but many are unable to press their way in, and are obliged to turn away. The testimonies are rich and numerous. This meeting is a power in the city. Within the limits of Philadelphia, we judge there are not less than twenty special public meetings weekly for the promotion of holiness; and many of them are very largely attended. They are mostly held in the Churches and under the care of the pastors.

"In Baltimore the work is moving with great rapidity. The Friday Meeting at the First M.E. Church is a meeting of great power. Bro. Harrison is still in Baltimore, and is pressing the battle with encouraging results."

——

LIQUOR.—Mrs. E. L. Comstock says that she has visited 115,000 prisoners in the prisons of the United States the last eighteen years; and out of the number 105,000 were brought there directly or indirectly through liquor.

AN ILLUSTRATION.—A good coloured man once said in a class meeting: "Bredren, when I was a boy I took a hatchet and went into de woods. When I found a tree dat was straight, big, and solid, I didn't touch dat tree, but when I found one leaning a little and hollow inside, I soon had him down. So when de debil goes after Christians, he don't touch dem dat stand straight and true, but dem dat lean a little and are bellow inside."

——

"The Victory that Overcometh."

Oh, the MIRACLES that would be wrought (and I use the word miracles advisedly) if the Church were inspired with self-emptying, God-honouring faith! Oh, the victories that would be won! Oh, the moral, and physical, and social regenerations that would be effected! What a casting-out of devils there would be from the heart, and life, and homes of men! What multitudes of slaves would be emancipated, and enfranchised in the kingdom of God! And how, upon the Church herself, in answer to her faith, the glory and the power of God would rest, and His beauty be seen upon her!—Rew. W. Crosbie, Derby.

——

Divine Guidance.

Circumscribed maybe our sphere; dark, indeed, may be our lot; yet, if we love the Lord, and pray to Him, and look for His direction, we shall soon discover some tiny chink through which the sunshine of His guiding Providence shall come! On the spot where its directing light shall fall let us, with such means as we can command, hew out—not in cold stone, but in living love—the likeness of the sacrifice of Christ. So shall we find our special sphere, and fill it to the commendation of the Master.—W. M. Taylor, D.D.

——

I have been all my life like a child whose father wishes to fix his undivided attention. At first the child runs about the room; but his father ties up his feet; he then plays with his hands, until they likewise are tied. Thus he continues to do, till he is completely tied up. Then when he can do nothing else he will attend to his father. Just so God has been dealing with me, to induce me to place my happiness in Him alone. But I blindly continued to look for it here; and God has kept cutting off one source of enjoyment after another, till I find I can do without them all, and yet enjoy more happiness, than ever before in my life.—Dr. Payson.

————————————————————————————————————————————

IMPORTANT WORK NOW READY,

PRICE FIVE SHILLINGS,

THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

BY DOUGAN CLARK.

Chap. I. Who is the Holy Spirit? Chap. 7. The Evidences of Entire Sanctification.

„ 2. The Spirit's Work in the New Birth „ 8. General Observations on the

„ 3. The Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Subject of Holiness.

„ 4. Effects of Christ's Baptism.— „ 9. The Enduement of Power.

Entire Sanctification. „ 10. The Indwelling Comforter.

„ 5. Effects of Christ's Baptism. „ 1 1. The Spirit of the Church.

„ 6. How is Holiness to be obtained? „ 12. The Spirit in Prayer.

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(East End London Juvenile Mission.)

President—The RIGHT HON. THE LORD CAIRNS (Lord High Chancellor Of Great Britain). Vice-President—The RIGHT HON. THE LORD KINNAIRD.

Treasurer—WILLIAM FOWLER, EsQ., 33, Cornhill, E.C.

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BROWN, REV. ARCHIBALD G., East London W.C.

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Audley-street, W. TYLER, REV. W., Congreational Church, Mile

NOBLE, COLONEL, C.R.E., Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. End New Town, E.

The Committee of the above Homes earnestly APPEAL FOR FUNDS to enable them to carry on the deeply important work of these valuable Institutions. Not only are

TWO COFFEE PALACES

always actively engaged in Christian temperance work among Adults in the East of London, but the various Mission Halls and Ragged Sunday Schools of this Mission bring every week about

5,000 DIFFERENT INDIVIDUALS

under religious influences; in addition to which, nearly

500 OTHERWISE DESTITUTE CHILDREN

are wholly supported in the HOMES. With so important and varied a work on hand, it is hoped that the necessity for immediate and continued support will be recognised by all who possess the Spirit of our Divine Master, who Himself came

TO SEEK AND TO SAVE THE LOST.

National, Philanthropic, and Christian reasons may be advanced in proof of the necessity for and advantages of this blessed work of saving homeless boys and girls from the perils of the lodging-houses and the streets. The Committee, with an earnest desire to avoid debt, appeal therefore once more to the Christian public.

Even the smallest sums in support of the general work of these Homes, in which

11,000 MEALS ARE REQUIRED WEEKLY,

will be gratefully received and thankfully acknowledged, if addressed to the Treasurer, or to the Hon. Director,

Home for Working and Destitute Lads,,

18 and 20, Stepney Causeway, London, E.

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One Halfpenny Weekly, and in Monthly Parts, 3d.,

THE CHILDREN'S TREASURY.

Copiously Illustrated.

EDITED BY DR. BARNARDO.

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One Penny Monthly,

NIGHT AND DAY.

EDITED BY DR. BARNARDO.

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HAUGHTON & CO., 10 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

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An Alethea In Heart REPUBLICATION 2002. For Asa Mahan, and Charles Finney's Complete Works, and hundreds of other holiness works, visit our web site: http://truthinheart.com

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