for He was before me." HE is not grass. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." And He is declared to be this in His person and His work, that there might be solid comfort in Him, and from Him, to those who know that "All flesh is grass." It is upon this ground that salvation is of grace through faith in Jesus, the Son of God and Lamb of God. It is indeed "an hard saying," "who can hear it?" that "All flesh is grass." And a large portion of the trials of saints arises from disappointed expectations of the flesh, either in themselves, or in others. It was "a hard saying" for the disciples to hear Jesus presenting Himself to them as "living bread," "meat," and "drink,” with the solemn declaration, "Verily, verily I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." (John vi. 53.) They had not then realized that "All flesh is grass.' Its thoughts, judgments, feelings, alike fretted against the doctrine of the cross, as thus propounded by the Lord. But the Lord closes this wonderful discourse concerning His own person and His work on the cross, by confirming the cry of the Prophet and of the Baptist as to what "flesh" really is. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." (John vi. 63.) The true doctrine of the cross, and the profitlessness of the flesh must stand together. If the flesh, intellectually, morally, or religiously, "profiteth" in bringing man unto God, "then Christ has died in vain." If the flesh profiteth to the understanding the things of God, then is there no need that a man should be born again. "It is the Spirit that quicken

eth." How much inward conflict there is, in "casting down reasonings, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" let each saint answer for himself. It is indeed a hard saying, that "the flesh profiteth nothing;" but what deliverance, what peace, what comfort, pervade the soul, when all expectation from the flesh is given up, and we learn to glory only in the Lord.

The apostle Peter takes up the cry of the prophet, confirming it, and connecting his own testimony with it, blessedly enlarging the scope of the declaration, "The word of the Lord endureth for ever." "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently; being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." (1 Pet. i. 22, 25.) If the prophet testified, "the word of our God shall stand for ever;" the apostle adds, "it liveth and abideth for ever." There was life in the word, when conveyed to the heart by the Spirit, and that word was by the gospel preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. It was not only the word of God in its enduringness set in strong contrast with flesh in its transitoriness, but it is Jesus in the glory of His person, in His cross, in His resurrection, in His ascension into

heaven, "angels, and principalities, and powers, being made subject unto Him," who is in the gospel set in strong contrast with all that man is or can be. He abideth for ever, and whatever man covets, whether righteousness, wisdom, or strength, or even life, is only found abidingly in Him.

But although the preaching of the gospel proceeds forth from God to man on the ground that "All flesh is grass," it finds men, in their individual thoughts, and in their associations together, still trying to contradict the axiom, that "All flesh is grass." The very "goodness of God," as proclaimed in the gospel, is taken occasion of by man, as an opportunity for exalting himself. And if the confession be extorted from man, by the stern fact of the uncertainty of life, that a man is a poor frail being-in a word, that he is "grass still the glory of man" is regarded by him as something more permanent than himself. But what says our oracle? "All the glory of man is as the flower of grass; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away." The glory of man, on which he prides himself as that which survives him, is here presented as even more perishable than grass. When the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be actually revealed, then will all human glory not only be obscured, but also will be righteously judged by God, as being set up in opposition to Christ. "How can ye believe, says Jesus, who receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" There is no abidingness in human glory, it is "as the flower of the field;” but the glory of Christ in the salvation of a sinner abideth for ever. That which the word preached

by the gospel now testifies unto, the day of the Lord will clearly manifest. (Isaiah. ii. 17.)

There are many restraints on the flesh now; for example, civil government, and the preaching of the gospel. Civil government is hardly regarded as an ordinance of God, but rather as an institution for the convenience of man. Neither is the preaching of the gospel regarded as God's grand ordinance, but it is rather superseded by an extended profession of the Christian religion, which has not sprung from the gospel at all. The effort of man is to throw off every restraint. "Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us?" is virtually the language of the day. But what if God should again no longer "strive with man!" what if He allow the restraints of government to be relaxed according to man's wilfulness! what if the testimony to the gospel of His grace be closed! what if God Himself, restraining man's wilfulness by so many secret means, should, in righteous judgment, send on man a strong delusion to believe a lie! It is to this that man is now tending. The wicked or lawless one "9 shall be revealed, and the full energy of "the flesh" will then be displayed in blasphemy against God and His Christ, to be met with direct judgment from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

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What a safeguard therefore is it to know that " All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is as the flower of the grass" that judgment is its necessary doom, for the flesh, and "the minding the things of the flesh," is enmity against God-that the gospel preached is the judgment of the flesh already in the cross of Christ. "Our old man is crucified with Him." And

whosoever acquiesces in that judgment passed by God there, shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life. He becomes "armed with the same mind," gives up all expectation from the flesh, because of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. And to him the cry, that " All flesh is as grass, and the glory of man as the flower of the grass," is the basis of the most solid comfort, because he is led to expect nothing from it, but his expectation is from the Lord. "Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Hab. ii. 13, 14.)

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?

I THINK He is the Son of God;
I think He's washed me in His blood;
I think that I one day shall stand
Among the blest at His right hand.

I think He is th' eternal God,
Who formed all things by His word;
I think He's full of truth and grace;
The Father's image in His face.

I love to think on Jesu's name,
Who through all ages is the same;
And though I'm poor, He thinks on me,
And soon His glory I shall see.

With thoughts of good He thinks on those
Whom God the Father in Him chose;
He suffer'd in His people's stead,
And rose to be their living Head.

His heart with love to us does burn,
And soon, I think, He will return,
And take us all with Him above,
The children of the Father's love.