not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them." We are apprised that many false teachers and seducing spirits are gone out into Christendom: they went out from the apostles, and from the faith delivered to them, because they were not of them. It is only they that measure and compare by this unerring rule who can judge of all things, and yet be judged of none.

If we know the revealed mind and will of God, we shall be free from all desire to transgress, from all danger of being tempted to transgress, from all human domination, and from all the power of the invisible enemy:-his semblances shall not deceive, his opposition shall not terrify. We shall be "free indeed," restored by the Son to the high estate of sonship. Our choice shall be to obey because we love our Father. We are no longer in bondage to the law of the flesh and mind, which are at enmity with the Light of God's perfect law, and which work death, temporal and eternal; but we are renewed in spirit, so that like our Master and as his disciples, we desire that "the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit."

WORD.

The power of the written Word to instruct, govern, guide, befriend, and secure from evil, is put forth by a variety of similitudes, although created things are too meagre to supply any adequate analogy. When they say unto you, "Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto diviners that peep and mutter," should not a people seek unto their God? for the Living to the dead; to the Law and the testimony, if they speak not according to this Word, it is because "there is no light in them." Here is an identification of God and his revealed

mind; the Life to be in us, and the Light to walk by. Our blessed Redeemer was the Life and Light in human flesh to serve the purpose of bearing the curse of death which in human nature was incurred, that God's Name might be glorified, and that man and the earth, cursed for his evil deed, should be redeemed and restored to their very good estate; the former to the image of God, the latter as His renewed dominion. The written Word is to serve the purpose of regenerating, even as the Word in flesh served for the redemption of mankind. One and the same Spirit of life and light being in both.

LIGHT.

"Thy Word is a Light unto my feet, and a lamp to my path!"

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TRUTH.

Sanctify them through thy Truth, thy word is truth!”

RIGHTEOUSNESS.

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"The LORD is well He will magnify the My righteousness shall am come to abolish the

"Hearken unto me ye that know RIGHTEOUSNESS, the people in whose heart is my law." pleased for his righteousness sake, Law and make it honourable." never be abolished. Think not I Law and the prophets. I am not come to abolish but to glorify; for in truth I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled." The apostle Peter testifies that by this Word, which shall survive these heavens and earth (which are unrighteous), they are reserved unto fire, even the fire of its judgment; when a new heaven and earth, which are governed by its power of Light and Life, and

which are therefore Righteous, shall replace the present things, even as they replaced the world before the flood.

FIRE.

"Is not my Word a Fire, saith the Lord." Again, "Behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the self-willed, yea, all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up."

RIVER.

"He shall be like a tree planted by a River of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in season, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doth shall prosper: the ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away, therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor transgressors in the congregation of the righteous."

WISDOM.

"When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant to thy soul, discretion shall keep thee, understanding shall preserve thee, to deliver thee from the way of evil; to deliver thee from the stranger which flattereth with her words, who forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it; but the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it."

LIFE.

"She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one that retaineth her." Quicken me

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according to thy word. Salvation is far from the wicked,

for they keep not thy statutes."

BREATH.

The breath of Life was breathed into man originally when he was very good. But by the seduction of Satan (who promised a higher felicity to man than that of sonship, and a higher power for the discernment of good and evil than was afforded by the light of God's law, which declared what was good and evil), man fell from his estate of sonship, and stripped of the obedience which constituted hím a son, blessed and happy, he was found of his judge. an exposed, reproved and condemned transgressor. "With the Breath of His mouth also shall he slay the wicked," for as the Word was given to enlighten and regenerate, its fire in judgment becomes the re-action of its rejection. David gives an awful picture of the indignation of the Redeemer, when His breath shall kindle upon transgressors.

SWORD.

"Take the helmet of salvation, and the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, which is the WORD of God." "Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and fight against thee with the SWORD OF MY MOUTH." "Out of His mouth goeth a sharp Sword, that with it he should smite the nations; and He shall rule them with a rod of iron." “Thou shalt subdue them with a rod of iron, and shalt dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel."

LAW.

"O how I love thy Law, it is my meditation all the day! I have refrained my that I might keep thy Word.

feet from every evil way,

Blessed are the undefiled

in the way, who walk in the Law of the Lord. Thy Word I have hid in my heart, that I transgress not against thee." "Thou hast rebuked the proud, who are accursed, which do err from thy commandments." "Remove from me the way of lying, but grant me thy Law graciously."

JUDGMENT.

"The Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not His saints they are preserved for ever, but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the Land, and dwell in it for ever. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide.”

ARM.

"Awake, awake, O Arm of the Lord, put on strength; awake as in the generation of old, as in the ancient times. Art thou not that which dried up the great deep and made a way for the ransomed to pass over; therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion."

Let this piece of glorious harmony be diligently studied. It is necessary to remove the fallacies which eighteen centuries of will-worship have accumulated on this way of the LORD. It is equally necessary to revert to principles, for they only who are established on Truth shall be able to weather the storm about to try men's works, of what sort they are, and on what foundation established. The Apostle enjoins the holding fast of the faithful Word, as he had been taught, that by its sound doctrine we might be able to exhort and convince the gainsayers. He says, “Of