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meet flesh and blood, and they were carnal weapons which He put into their hands. Now, there is not a touch of that here. There are no slings, and stones, and jaw-bones of asses; but that is declared to be the whole armour of God. If this is not the armour I have on me, I am not fighting for Christ. Saints may take carnal weapons; but if I do—if, for instance, I go into a court of justice to assert my rights, do not let me talk of being in the light of God. That is where dispensational truth is so important. I find here that the Spirit sends me into a field of battle, and I find that my security depends on truth, righteousness, faith, peace, and the sword of the Spirit. Now, supposing we were to describe a few of these wiles. Infidel heresies, superstitious vanities, evil doctrines, false expectations about the history of the world. We are not here in company with our lusts, but in conflict with direct attempts of the enemy. We must withstand the temptations of our hearts in walking through the world, as in chap. v. Here we are set face to face with Satan, the deceivableness of unrighteousness, doctrinal heresies. These are the things we are to withstand. And is it not perfectly right, that being delivered by the Seed of the woman, we should make our war with him who was our captor? How could you attach yourself to Jesus, and not turn round in the face of the enemy, and let him know that you are at war with him? Having passed this fervent scene, we find that, having this armour on us, if a quickened condition of soul be not maintained in communion, the armour will be cumbrous. "Praying always . . . and for me . . . that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds." Did you ever hear of such a thing as the ambassador of one nation being put in bonds by the nation to which he was sent? Why, Christ has fared worse in this world than any nation in it would. And, pray, what message did this ambassador bring? A message of bound

less grace. And that is the way He has been treated. The law of nations would not allow it for an instant. Yet that is the way God, for 1800 years, in the person of His servants and witnesses, has consented to be treated.

Then he tells them that he sends Tychicus "that he may comfort your hearts." Oh, if we could be in that way -in prison, yet able to comfort others! As dear Saunders, a clergyman in the Bishop of London's coal-hole, sent to his wife, “Be merry, dear wife, be merry; we 're all merry here. We weep with Him now; but we shall laugh with Him for ever." That is like Paul, sending from a prison in Rome a cheering word to his brethren at Ephesus. What cannot the Spirit of God work?

The Lord grant that we may be taught by the doctrine, instructed in morals, and put in something of strength for the battle by this closing scene. AMEN.

AN EXTRACT.

"I HAVE just been reading again that lovely fourth chapter of John. What a little heaven it is to sit in spirit there, and be in company with Him that is the eternal life, in full grace dispensing Himself to one of the degraded captives of pollution and death!

"The satisfying water springs from that grace in the Son of God which reaches and quiets the conscience; and it was such that Jesus here dispenses to her. Till our need as sinners is met and answered, we must be thirsting again, let us get what we may, because the soul is not at rest with God. But Jesus came to repair the breach in the conscience--to give rest before God, and in God, and thus to impart the satisfying water of life through the Holy Ghost.

"And when this is done, in a great divine sense, the end is reached-God is glorified-the sinner made happy,

and entrance into the places of glory becomes a necessary result.

"This end is beautifully shown in this same exquisite and marvellous chapter; for the woman goes away with a spirit in deep refreshment because of conscious acceptance and life, and the Son of God Himself is so satisfied in the fruit of His own way, that He has had that which sets Him above the thirst He had been feeling and the food He had wanted. 'I have meat to eat that ye know not of.' It was as manna to Him. What a thought! the Son of God comes down to our degraded earth to find His manna, His strange mysterious food and satisfaction of heart-bread which He could never have known in heaven- -a joy that He could never have tasted amid the glories of His unfallen creatures. But here, on earth, among sinners, He finds, in the dispensing of the Father's grace, the deepest and fullest answer of all the longings of His divine love.

"When a sinner is happy in Him, His end is reached, and so is ours, and all that remains is to spend eternity in the glory that becomes such an end as this-His joy in us, and ours in Him." J. G. B.

"O LORD, thy love's unbounded!
So full, so vast, so free;
Our thoughts are all confounded
Whene'er we think of Thee.

For us Thou camest from heaven,
For us to bleed and die;
That purchased and forgiven,
We might ascend on high."

188

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."-1 Thess. v. 18.

"IN everything give thanks."

My God, is this Thy will?

Give thanks for disappointments given,

For prayers unanswer'd still?

Give thanks! In vain I've pray'd
That I might useful be,
And by Thy Spirit's helpful aid,
Bring many souls to Thee.

Give thanks! when in the place
Of health and usefulness,
Through sickness, Thou hast paled my face
With pain and weariness.

Give thanks! If 'twere Thy will
Submission to demand,

I then might bid myself be still,
And bow to Thy command.

But hush, beneath my eye

I see, in words of blood,
"Will He who gave His Son to die,
Refuse thee any good?"

Give thanks! Yea, Lord, I do,
And by Thy help I will,

Give thanks for blessings not received,
Although expected still.

Give thanks for mercies given,
Unnoticed oft by me;

Give thanks for sins forgiven,
Known only, Lord, to Thee.

Give thanks in word and deed,
For Thy surpassing love,

That sent Thy Son on earth to save,
And now to plead above.

Give thanks for tender love,

That our Redeemer show'd,

Who, in the absence of Himself,
A Comforter bestow'd.

Oh grant me by Thy grace

To walk by faith alone,

Until before my Father's face,

I know as I am known!

J. G. B.

189

"A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN ABOVE THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE SUN."

ACTS IX.

I WOULD desire particularly to ask the question, Why was it that Jehovah said to Moses--who was a good man, as we should popularly term it-"Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet" (Exod. iii. 5); but to a wretched rebel like Saul of Tarsus, in the hour when his malignity against Christ was at its height, God, as it were, draws nigh to him, addresses him by name, and then and there takes him up to make him a pattern of the grace that is in His own heart? There surely must be some weighty reason to account for the different way in which the blessed God acted in both these cases. Let us look a little at both. Moses, as I have said, was a man remarkable in his day for the very opposite of that which distinguished Saul of Tarsus, raised up as well as fitted of God to lead forth Jehovah's people out of Egypt; and yet, when he ventured to draw nigh and look at the burning bush, he is not permitted, Jehovah Himself insisting on distance between Moses and Himself. Surely it is not that the blessed God is in any sense indifferent to the sorrows or afflictions of enslaved Israel. What a beautiful word that is "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows!" And yet, to the man who is to carry out all that is expressed in such words, Jehovah says, "Draw not nigh;" and Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. The very contrary and contrast of all this is supplied in what is commonly called the conversion of Saul. Why is it that God keeps up distance with Moses, and Himself

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