was the only object in the first creation that carried an understanding; but you could not say he was created "after God in righteousness and true holiness." We are told to put away lying, as being members one of another. "Be ye angry, and sin not." Anger may be as holy a feeling as any other; but do not retain it, so as to let it degenerate into nature. Then, resist "the devil. Let him that stole steal no more," &c. This is very beautiful. He is not merely to cease from stealing, but to become a workman for others. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." Our works are looked at; our words; and now our tempers.

Are you not thankful that Christianity legislates for every bit of you! But what dignity! Your lips may be employed in communicating grace to the hearers; and your thoughts, either in refreshing or grieving the Holy Spirit of God!

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Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." This is a change from "The Lord's Prayer." There you are instructed to know that God will measure Himself by you. Forgive.

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as we forgive." Here is quite the reverse. I am to measure myself by God; "forgiving, as God hath forgiven you." This shows, as we were observing before, that the Lord's ministry was a transitional thing; it had not come out into the full glory of salvation. Now a ministry has gone forth for the perfecting of us individually, and for our edification as the body of Christ.

CHAPTER V.

We have observed that the doctrinal part of the epistle closed at chap. iv. 16. Then, from that to chap. vi. 9, we get the practical part, and we get conflict in the end.

Read now chap. v., and to chap. vi. 9; the practical details of Christian life. I should like, first, to say a little about precept.

If we consult the epistles to the Romans and the Colossians, we shall find in them a different construction from the Philippians. There the apostle is eminently a pastor; looking at the souls of the Philippians. But in the Ephesians, Romans, Colossians, he is a teacher; therefore in them we get doctrine, followed by precept. Now, why do we get precepts in the epistles? Do you always get your conduct directly from precepts? No; but by putting your mind in connexion with Christ Himself, and the grace of God in your calling. So we get in Titus: "The grace of God . . . hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly;" that is, if I know the moral virtue of the grace in which I stand, I shall be taught, without precepts, to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Peter tells us exactly the same thing: "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be?" and again, "Seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent." There is no precept to be diligent; but the eye of the soul is directed to the glory, and to the dissolution of all things present; and it says what manner of persons ought we to be! So practical power derives itself from the grace of our calling.

We get the same thing in the book of Genesis; there are no precepts there, but the patriarchs lived holy lives (through the Spirit, surely) by virtue of their calling. One is called out by "the God of glory." It is said, as on the lips of Joseph, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" It is not that he had precepts; but He looked at God. So in your daily walk you are not commonly looking at precepts, but at Christ. But why, then, the precepts? For several reasons.

1. Precepts serve as tests. If a soul is backsliding, you may use them in discipline. It is very well, in such a case, to have a well-defined precept to guide you.

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THE

ATTRACTIVE POWER OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED.

THE SEPARATING POWER OF CHRIST AT HIS COMING.

John iii. 11-17; xii. 20-33; 1 Thess. iv. 13-18.

THE history of man has been failure and ruin throughout, and Scripture is not silent in its testimony as to this, either in the Old or New Testament. The second chapter of John furnishes a striking proof of this statement; whether that Scripture be regarded from a moral or dispensational point of view, the same solemn reality is inscribed upon it. Let us examine for a little the concluding verses of that chapter. "Now when He was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man." Here, then, is a fact of the deepest moment, and one specially necessary to remember in these days, when human ingenuity is taxed to its utmost, to produce an effect on man as he is: if his feelings can be wrought upon in any way, then it is expected a lever power has been placed underneath him, whereby mighty results may show forth themselves in him. This being the case pre-eminently just now, it is well to have God's estimate of the value of all such efforts. It is said in the feast day at Jerusalem many believed in His name, seeing the miracles Jesus did; yet that unto such Jesus did not commit Himself, knowing man, and what was in man. Does any one enquire what point or force has such an utterance with respect to the subject in hand? Much every way, but specially that in the next chapter, Jesus declares to the master in Israel, the positive necessity of a new man; the

fact is, there must be a new nature, a creature of God, born of water and the Spirit-the old can neither be trusted nor improved; no power in heaven or earth can ameliorate man; he may be convinced as to mind, he may be reformed as to outward habits, as we may have seen the once cold and negative sceptic, changed into the respectable citizen who gives an outward credence to all the great facts of Christianity; or as we may see the drunkard and profligate man, outwardly turned into the sober and steady man; but all this touches not the springs within, these are left in their nature and source, corrupt and irreparably bad.

Now herein lies the moral beauty and magnificence of the cross of Christ, that no one in heaven or earth, could conceive as the blessed God did, or accomplish as the eternal Son did, that and that alone which could meet the desperate nature of the case. So perfectly has God been glorified about the ruin of man, that not only are ruined creatures like us, constituted the righteousness of God in Christ; but believers in Him are blessed up to the very heights of that glory where God's right hand has exalted our Saviour and our Lord. There are two sides in this wonderful economy of grace, God's side and man's side; as to the latter, the word is unmistakable, "ye must be born again." "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." As to the former, the word is equally significant, "the Son of man must be lifted up." How completely these two sides of truth with their respective aspects, combine in winding up man's history as such; without a spark of goodness in himself, he had not even the appreciation of it in another; if it had been there the blessed Son of God would have drawn it forth; but, alas! we know too well that it was in the presence of manifested goodness as seen in Jesus, that the badness and hatred of man for all that was lovely and divine was most witnessed. The historical fact recorded in the Old Testament, with which John

iii. is associated, is very instructive. We are carried back to Numbers xxi., which describes a scene in the thirty-ninth year of Israel's wilderness pilgrimage, rebellion of such a character sprang up in the camp, as to bring down upon the people the punishment of death, and death too of such a nature, even the poisonous venom of fiery serpents !

This marked change in the ways of God with Israel calls for notice on our part. Let it be observed how up to this point every curative process had been resorted unto and tried; but now as it were in the very close, the last year of wilderness wandering, the blessed God exposes man in his true light, as one whom no curative process could reach, and introduces that which pointed on to other days, which pre-figured that redemption which was no afterthought with God—that which was nothing less than the introduction of life into the midst of death. If in the midst of life we are in death, how very blessed to know that in the midst of death there is life; and oh, what life! No less a life than that which has gained the victory over death, and him who had the power of death!

“Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live." Observe, there is no thought whatever of setting aside the judgment of God. Where would be righteousness in that? And if, on the other hand, it were all righteousness, in peremptory destruction, where were the love? Herein then shines out God's wisdom, in that He provides an answer commensurate with His own nature to His moral claims. God ever sustains His relations with us, not only according to His own nature, but also after a manner which carries security and confidence to us. This, the serpent of brass put upon a pole, was to Israel, and this the Son of man lifted up upon the cross is to poor sinners to-day. The death of Christ was historically, "in the end of the age." Every trial had only brought out the solemn fact that hope alone was in God; and then it was that He, in