at him, his ears are assailed with words of reproach; yet he stands aloof in the conscious dignity of his high origin, and in full confidence of the great future which the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has in store for his people. He is amongst us Gentiles, but not of us; he may live with us for years, and he may die and be buried in our graveyards, but during life, he and his are as distinct and separate as if we were denizens of different planets. As a man of business he will go in and out among us, but nothing more. "I will buy with you," says Shylock, "sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you." This may appear strange, if not churlish or bigoted, by the mere worldling, who sneers at the bald religion of the Jews, shorn as it is of its ancient gorgeous ritual; without a temple, an altar, a sacrifice, or a priesthood. But this very fact tends to enhance our interest in the Jew; we know that he is not only proud of the glory of his people in the past history of the world, but he is anxiously looking forward to that time when they will hold the first rank in the nations, and his loved Jerusalem shall be rebuilt with a splendour which will far surpass the days of Solomon, when the Queen of Sheba had "no more spirit in her" at the sight of the splendour of his capital and throne. With few exceptions the great mass of the Jewish people look forward to this great future, and even pray for it. On certain occasions, in their public prayers at synagogue worship, we may hear the solemn wail of: "Lord, build, Lord, build, Build thy house speedily. In haste! in haste! even in our day, while at the annual commemorative feast, the Passover, next year in the land of Israel; this year we are servants, but next year we hope to be free men in the land of Israel." It is true that Jerusalem is "laid in heaps," and that the temple is laid waste, and not one stone is left upon another; but the Jew, true to his national instincts, can wander in heart, if not in person, over those loved ruins, and in the language of the psalmist say,-"Thy saints take pleasure in her stones; and favour the dust thereof." A modern writer has said in reference to this: "No Englishman loves his home, no Scotchman loves his country, as a Jew loves Palestine. Why is this? Because it is his home and country; he is a discrowned king, a weary-footed wanderer, having a heritage before him, and a destiny in prophecy, in comparison of which the grandest estates. are worthless; and having a lineage and an ancestry, in comparison of which that of our present nobles is but of yesterday." To return to the point from which we started,— "meeting a Jew." One of the thoughts which naturally arises in the mind, is the question of the supposed debater with the apostle to the Gentiles, recorded in Romans xi. "Hath God cast away His people? God God forbid." forbid." ... "Have they stumbled that they should fall? "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness (margin hardness) in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved." So that the Jew could take the volume of the New Testament from the hands of a scoffing Christian (in name), and from that prophetic stand, prove the glory that is in the future for his people; and, better taught than many of his Gentile brothers, he can trace the Word "concerning Judah and Jerusalem," that "in the last days the mountain of the Lord's house shall be prepared (margin) in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it, and many say, "Come ye, and let us go up to people shall go and the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isaiah ii. 2, 3.) Lest some of our readers should lean to the system of spiritualizing or allegorizing this passage, let us turn to another kindred passage-it will defy the allegorist. It is so plain and clear that any attempt to mystify its literal meaning must fail: "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall be gathered unto it to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. . . . In these days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers." (Jer. iii, 17, 18.) 66 We cannot now dwell further upon this interesting subject. Let us turn to another thought which presses upon the mind when we meet a Jew. It is from the song of Moses, Deut. xxxii. 9. "The Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance." How dear to God is that race, though so despised by the world. "Beloved for their fathers' sakes." Israel, mine inheritance. (Isaiah xix. 25.) "A peculiar treasure unto me above all people." (Exodus xix. 5.) "Israel my glory." (Isaiah xlvi. 13.) "A crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God." (Isaiah lxii. 3.) "The throne of Thy glory." (Jer. xiv. 21.) Further, not only shall Israel be God's earthly centre, around which all nations shall revolve when Christ shall sit upon the throne of His glory in Jerusalem, as the future metropolis of the world; but looking backward still, we see that it was in reference to the Jewish people as a nation, that other nations were placed on the map of the world. In other words, that nationalities arose and were created subordinate to that central nation-Israel. It may not be flattering to our national susceptibilities to behold that England's place in the world's map has been allotted her solely in reference to the part she is yet to take in the future of the Jew. La belle France will not consider herself flattered by the same; yet the Jew is the key to prophecy, which shall yet open up the future in which all nations shall play their destined part. We repeat that the Jew is the key to prophecy. And what is prophecy? It is but history foretold, as history is prophecy fulfilled. In all past history the Jew has been the leading figure, as in the future he will be the central. This is no rash statement; we do not deal in figures of speech; for we read that God, "made of one blood all the nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." (Acts xvii. 26.) The apostle referred to the scattering of the people from Babel, (Gen. xi.); but he had a special reference to the chapter in Deuteronomy from which we have already quoted: "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. (Deut. xxxii. 8.) We need not comment upon this interesting portion of the Word of God. It requires none, and we shall not weaken its power by attempting to do so. But we may say, "Oh! that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." (Psalm (Psalm liii. 6.) And of the Jew, instead of reproach, rather say, "The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there,"-Zion. Darlington. GEORGE LLOYD, F.S.A. GRACE NOT WORKS. NE of the greatest evils of the present day is the sad departure in teaching and preaching from the true and Scriptural statement of salvation through Christ by free and sovereign grace. We must see the works of the creature in the same light in which God views them, and know them to be worthless. We must see God's way of salvation by the Lord Jesus, and the language of our heart must be :'My hope is built on nothing less one Than Jesus' blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly rest on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid "Rock" I stand; All other ground is sinking sand. we 66 In that way our privilege is to rejoice, and as an inhabitant of this blessed "Rock," to sing and shout with joy; for strong is the Lord who is our defence and Shepherd, and "shall not want any good thing." God's declaration about men in their natural state is, "They are all under sin ". none righteous, no, not ""they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Rom. iii. 9-12.) God's declaration about the value of their works is, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord." (Prov. xv. 8.) Mark! not their cursing, bitterness, wrath, malice, uncleanness, covetousness, murders, &c., only; but also "the sacrifice," their formal prayers, observance of forms and ceremonies, empty, heartless going to church and chapel, bowing of the head, and bending of the knee, which unrenewed men please themselves by calling "the worship of God;" a this is an abomination in His sight. The "Word of God" declares that all are sinners, a all the works of the sinner are an abomination to J hovah; salvation, in respect of anything man can do obtain it, is hopeless; but God has been pleased, in H great grace, to plan, work out, and GIVE, a salvation every way suited to the wants of poor sinners. I 1 Tim. i. 15, we read: "This is a faithful saying, an worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into th world to save sinners.' Blessed words they are in deed! they pour hope into hearts, where otherwise ho could never come. Notice! it is Christ Jesus the A mighty, eternal Son of God, who is said to have con to save, not to help. He came into this world, liv here a "man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, "humbled Himself, and became obedient to death, eve the death of the cross." Man, not being able to s tisfy God, another must do this work, or all the race man be swept into hell. Jesus stepped in on behalf poor sinners, bore sin, satisfied the demands of God justice, by His blood-shedding, and has been raise again from the dead, "a Prince and a Saviour," ar now He is set up in the Bible, and in the preach Gospel, for poor sinners to look to as their only hope. Now let me set before you, reader, simply the decla ations of God. 1. God's declaration respecting man's state is, "The is none righteous." (Rom. iii. 10.) 2. God's declaration respecting the works of man "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to t Lord." (Prov. xv. 8.) 3. God's declaration respecting the sufficiency Jesus as a Saviour is, "Whosoever believeth in Hi should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John i 16, 19.) Those who thus believe manifest the Divi origin of their faith, by denying themselves and follow ing Him who "loved them and gave Himself for them Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He th heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent m hath everlasting life, and shall not come into conden nation; but is passed from death unto life." (John v. 24 Pointington, Sherborne. T. G. D. BELL. THE HOUSE OF WISDOM. PROV. IX. 1. HE preceding chapter gives a very full and beautiful description of Wisdom, and ascribes to her both personal and divine attributes. We may therefore regard this term as one of the titles of Jesus Christ. Wisdom, or Christ, is here said to have built a house, (i.e. anticipatively: Christ had not yet appeared, and He did not commence the building of His house until He had taken His seat at the right hand of God,) and the house which He hath built is "the habitation of God through the Spirit." Christ may be regarded as the builder of this house, because, in conjunction with the Father, He designed it, and because he employs, directs, and rewards the workmen who are instrumentally engaged in its erection. The building of this house has been going on since the day of Pentecost. Prior to that time there were men of God; but they were not builded together as the habitation of God through the Spirit. In Eph. ii. 6, we are told that God "hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" -not with Christ Jesus, that will not be until our bodies are raised; but in Christ Jesus we are already raised and seated in the heavenlies; yea, in Him "all the building is fitly framed together, and groweth into an holy temple in the Lord." See also Eph. iii. 3-6-10. The foundation of this building is Christ Himself-as He said to Peter in Matt. xvi.: "Upon this rock". myself the Divine Son of a Divine Father-" will I build my Church, and the gates of hell"-the machinations, and spiritual forces, of the invisible world"shall not prevail against it." The materials of which this building is constructed are described in 1 Peter ii. 5: "Ye also, as lively, or living stones, are built up a spiritual house." These materials are chosen by Christ, quickened by Christ, fashioned, polished, and adjusted by Christ. It is in. Him, and by the power of His might, that all the building is fitly framed together. This house is not a material edifice, but a spiritual habitation-"the temple of the living God." In connexion with this house of God, Wisdom hath builded seven pillars. In the Word of God the number seven is the symbol of fulness, perfection, harmony. The seven pillars to the House of Wisdom denote that "the habitation of God through the Spirit" will be divinely perfect. In connection with material buildings, pillars are used for support and for ornament. The pillars which support the house of God are the divine decrees, the divinity of Jesus, the atonement, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the new covenant promises. Supported by these pillars, the Church can neither fail nor grow weak; for the power of God is in it. Men are discussing the questions of the constitution and government of the church, and the expedients they must employ for its security and consolidation. We must use the power of the State, say some, to repress all "dissenters, beersellers, and heretics." We must exalt the clergy into a priesthood, say others, and by the use of rites and raggery, communicate to the people sacramental grace. We must introduce a more erudite and eloquent ministry-make our worship ornate, and adapt our services to the high culture and improved tastes of the times! Alas, for human expedients. Man touches the workmanship of God, and defiles it! He brings his strange fire to the altar, and the consuming fire of the divine holiness is kindled against him. The pillars which he devises for the support of the Church are constructed of sand. They are sources of weakness rather than occasions of strength. The pillars which adorn and beautify the house of God are those living columns on which is inscribed the image of Christ. Classic architecture, an imposing ceremonial, and æsthetic devices, may gratify the natural taste; but they are all human expedients; they becloud the spiritual beauty of the house, and they indicate that those who ought to keep and rule it, have fearfully failed in their responsibility. This House of Wisdom is built to be "the HABITATION OF GOD through the Spirit." Wonderful as it seems, Jehovah has not been content to occupy the heavens. He visited man in the garden of Eden. He visited Abraham in Mesopotamia. When Israel was redeemed He actually took up His abode with man. As soon as the building of the tabernacle was revealed and regulated, God said, "I dwell in the midst of Israel, and I will be their God; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who hath taken them out of the land of Egypt to dwell in their midst." The dwelling of God in the midst of His people is the end of redemption. This is the greatest of all blessings. Every believer in Jesus has God dwelling in him. "Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost." So also is the Church as a body. The Church is God's habitation on earth by the Spirit. Precious privilege. God Himself, the source of light, and peace, and joy, dwells with His people. But how great the responsibility which attaches to this! Let us be careful how we treat our Divine guest! All This House of Wisdom is to be the school of God's children. It is here that, under the direction of the Holy Ghost as the great Preceptor, the saints are perfected. The Holy Ghost dwells in the Church, making each member to grow according to that which is in Christ, and according to the measure of Christ. Christians should be full of knowledge, even to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. It is the Christian's knowledge of the revelation of the glory of Christ that produces fruits. Being a partaker of this knowledge he is in peace; he is in the enjoyment of Christ before the Father, according to the accomplishment of all the councils of God, and so he can grow in all virtue, and abound in practical service to the Lord. Eph. iv. 12-16. This House of Wisdom is to be the witness of of God's grace and truth in the world. The Church should be like an illuminated city, built on an eminence, to reflect the brightness of the Saviour's character, and to exhibit His grace and truth to the world during the dark night-time of this present dispensation. The Church is in the world, God's witness to the Divinity of Christ's person, the completeness and efficacy of His atonement, the freeness and fulness of His salvation. Christ has confided to the Church His earthly glory, and, by the power of the Holy Ghost, she ought to display it in the world as a testimony to the victory of Christ over Satan, death, and all the enemies that He has led captive, and over which He has triumphed on the cross. Alas! we have failed in our responsibility. We have allowed the brightness of Christ's glory to be tarnished by the innovations of carnal men. We have trampled the glory of Jesus under our feet, and have sought to fashion "the habitation of God" after the pattern of a carnal ordinance. Nevertheless, our responsibility has not ceased. The Church is still the depository of the glory of Christ; it is the habitation of His glory, and each believer in his own sphere, and according to the measure of his own ability, is accountable for the outshining of this glory in the world. When the age of the glory shall have come all hindrances to its manifestation will be put away by God: in the meantime each believer has been set in this house of God that the glory of God might shine in the world. Believers, think of your vocation! think also of your responsibility! Dunstable, Bedfordshire. J. DIXON. THE PRESENT MYSTERIES OF THE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. (Continued from page 170.) E have had included in the parable of the tares and wheat (which describes the outward character of this dispensation to the end of the age), two parables setting forth most trying and distressing aspects of the kingdom of heaven, as the result of the gospel preached among the Gentiles, this word of the kingdom spoken from heaven to every creature upon earth. In the first parable, a monstrous influential power overshadowing the nations, and affording shelter for all the evil demons and their false principles that ever lodged in the branches of the Pagan Roman empire(the fowls of the air declared by our Lord to represent the wicked one taking away the good seed from the hearts of the hearers) In the second parable we have the corruption of the fine flour, which represents the true seed, or the children of the kingdom! In seeking some explanation of these depressing results, we wait on the Lord for some relief of mind under this apparent failure and ask once more, as in the prophet Isaiah, "Hast Thou again laboured in vain, O Lord, and spent Thy strength, and extended this day of grace, obtained this accepted time in vain, and for nought?" The Lord answers, No! my judgment is with God Father, my work is with my God; for again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field, the my which, when a MAN hath found, he hideth, and for j thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buye that field. This parable or similitude lieth over against the oth of the monstrous tree, that grew from a little se which a man sowed in his field, as he thought, and th explains how the watcher and Holy One in heaven, ready to come forth with the cry, "Hew down the tre cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter h fruit; let the beasts get away from under it, and th fowls from off its branches." (Daniel iv. 14.) The Lord Jesus had foreseen His inheritance of th world and His heirship of the throne of David, and als accepted the conditions of His glory as the Second Ma the Last Adam! The first Adam had not kept his fir estate, but fallen into the hand of Satan the adversar through disobedience and unbelief. Thus, under th baneful influence of Satan and his own evil and inde pendent heart, man has ever since usurped dominio over his own will, carried out his own lusts, and lorde it in the world as though it were his own; nevertheles his purposes cannot stand. Man, his works, and loft imaginations, which are all evil, shall come to nough and himself, unless he turn to God by the atoning bloo of Jesus, shall come into judgment and condemnatio with the devil and his angels as rebels against God Now, God has decreed man to be His vicegerent an head over all this creation, according to the word, "Th seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head". destroy the devil and all his works. But this Man must undo what the first man has done By man came sin and death; by Man must com righteousness and life! The first man brought in sin the second Man must put away sin by voluntary death being made sin. The condition of his headship an lordship over heaven and earth, was his obedience unt death. His laying down His life as the price of th world's redemption. All that He had upon earth wa life, and at the command of His Father He laid it down that He might take it again as Lord of heaven and earth. Yes, He emptied Himself, and took the form o a slave, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; therefore, God hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name above every name. (Phil. ii 7, 8, 9, 10.) But we see Jesus, who was a little while lower than angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour. (Heb. ii. 9.) In the fifth chapter of Revelation we have a vision of ONE sitting on a throne with a roll in His right hand, sealed with seven seals, written within and without." This roll was the title deeds of this earth's inheritance, forfeited by Adam, the first man; but purchased back by the Second Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the slain Lamb, (See Jeremiah xxxii. ;) the title deeds, evidence of purchase, written without and within and sealed. when the Lamb, which had been slain, taketh the roll out of the right hand of the Sitter on the throne, not only the redeemed rejoice in His death and bloodshedding to save them from hell; but all the angels sing, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power, and riches, and strength, and honour, and glory, So and blessing; and thus the universal cry goes forth, "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever!" The only explanation, therefore, given to us the disciples, for our comfort, who groan under the usurpation and wickedness of false, worldly Christianity, is the setting before us the fact, that the field in which this tree is flourishing belongs not to fallen man, but to the Christ of God. That in the Prophets and Psalms we are told the end of this usurpation. The treasure hid in the field is, the kingdoms of this inhabited earth and the glory of them, which are the Christ's, the Son of the living God, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Son of David, the Lamb slain, by the title of purchase by his own precious blood. It has pleased God in each successive dispensation since the fall, each being set up in grace, in unconditional blessing to faith, to suffer man in his self-will and unbelief to mar and spoil the things and truth of God, whereby hath been displayed not only His longsuffering, but the necessity for man's new creation by regeneration. So, His mountain in the field, Mount Zion which He loved, has been again and again given up for its wickedness, and trodden down by the Gentiles; nevertheless it is the Lord's purchased treasure. He has hidden it in His heart. His eye and heart are on Jerusalem continually. Immanuel's land hath been purchased by Immanuel's blood, as surely also is the whole earth our Lord's and the fulness thereof. The Son of Man will in due time be brought before the Ancient of Days, and receive the kingdom and dominion over all nations, and tongues, and languages under the whole heaven! "He Why, therefore, should we quail before this mystery of iniquity? The setting up of the world's Christianity, whether by the Pope or the kings of the earth? that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh them to scorn; the Lord shall have them in derision! Yet will God set His King upon His holy hill of Zion." Surely will He, receiving the nations for His inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for His possession, dash the usurpers in pieces with a rod of iron. Yes, the day of the Lord will be revealed with "flaming fire, taking vengeance on them who know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess. i.) Yes, it shall come to pass in that day "the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, (the prince of the power of the air and his demons, see Revelation xii. 7,) and the kings of the earth upon the earth; then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed," when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and among His ancients gloriously." Yes, the kingdoms of this world (the field) shall become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ. This treasure in the field now hidden shall be then displayed under the whole heavens. The heavens will declare His glory in His Father's kingdom as the Son of God, and the earth, His footstool, will be filled with His glory as the Son of Man, the Melchisedec! Thus then doth our Lord comfort us concerning the other similitude of the great and evil tree now flourishing in the field, by this parable of the treasure hidden in the field, which He has bought, and which treasure He now hideth for a season only; for as surely as Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylon and image set up for human worship, were cut down as in a moment, that all might know the heavens do rule, so surely in a little while the wicked one shall not be, and the meek shall inherit the earth. Just when he is flourishing as a green bay tree in great power, he shall pass away and not be found. So shall this vine of the earth, his grapes being fully ripe, be trodden in the wine-press of the wrath of God, and the worshippers in heaven will fall down, saying, "We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, because Thou hast taken to Thee thy great power and hast reigned"; for behold the hidden treasure, the kingdom of the Son of Man, the Son of David, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall be displayed upon earth! The song of Moses and the Lamb shall be sung upon the sea of glass. The Lord with His right hand hath dashed in pieces the last great Pharoah; He has delivered His people Israel; He will bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of His inheritance, in the sanctuary He hath built for them. The Lord shall come with all His saints; the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow into it. This blood-purchased field shall no more groan under the evil one! The treasure of the kingdom shall be no more hidden; but the earth shall be filled with His glory! Let us now look to the Lord for the comfort to be derived from the parable of the Pearl of Great Price, as set over against the parable of the woman and her leaven. (To be continued, D.V.) "Jehovah-Shammah,- The Lord is there."-Ezekiel xlviii, 35. EFORE I enter on the prophetic bearing of the passage before us, allow me to refer to the way in which the Scripture may be applied; for there is generally in God's Word, after the primary application has been seen, certain lessons of spiritual truth to be found by a secondary application. "Jehovah-Shammah" is a distinguishing name. Jehovah is everywhere present. We cannot fly from His presence. This, however, is not the truth referred to. We must rather see that, in another and very important sense, Jehovah is not everywhere. He is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. There can be no communion between |