Man

though it be presumption to allow our little thoughts concerning Him to appear, it is our highest privilege and joy to gather up His concerning the object of His delight. We hear Him say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." "Because He has set His love upon me, therefore will I deliver Him; I will set Him on high, because He hath known my name." Oh, to sit lowly before Him, and learn of Him from the only One who knows Him fully! What self-emptiness there must be for communion with God! Self-occupation in any form hinders it; e.g. Mark ix. 31-34. must be utterly displaced. This we see well in the case of the leper. (Lev. xiv.) Poor thing! "unclean" and "afar off," needing a sacrifice though amenable to gracious dealing, made clean before God's eye by acceptable blood-sprinkling; qualified for companionship of the redeemed by one washing with water; and for one's own place in the company by a second washing-all most important and, as we well know, necessary. Nor is this all. Death must be brought home to his heart-learned in connection with what he had done, every faculty of the first man being thus brought under the power of death, and a new power given, oil upon the blood. Then what he is is also apprehended as dealt with in the sin-offering and burnt-offering. But this withal yields a sweet savour to God, and the soul rendered thus sensible of richest acceptance enters upon communion in the truest sense. (See also Lev. vii. 1-18.) The Lord empty us of self in every form, and fill our souls with His thoughts of JESUS; for IN HIM we are all that God can look for, and IN HIM we have all that heart can desire.

Entered upon a harassing scene, we see Him set for

God, and for God alone. He had one object-the glory of His Father; one hope too-the right hand, with its pleasures for evermore," though the path to it lay through death. (Ps. xvi.; Heb. xii. 2.) For Jehovah's sake bearing reproach, "a stranger to His brethren, and an alien to His mother's children," the zeal of His house eating Him up. Thus set for God, the world ranged itself in opposition to Him, withal so gracious-the heathen raging, the people meditating, the kings set, and the rulers taking counsel against Him. What a picture! Well might He exclaim, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee!"

And what of His house, of whom it was written, "I will dwell in them and walk in them"? He "looked for comforters, but found none." In view of His sufferings, when He might have reckoned upon their sympathy, they were heartlessly quarrelling over their prospects in the kingdom. Here indeed was a sorrow, and one the Lord felt; for He gives utterance to His thoughts in the words of warning: "All ye shall be offended because of me this night;" and so it was.. "They all forsook Him and fled." They were looking for the kingdom, but there was little in them to maintain its glory. Nevertheless it was the Father's good pleasure to give it them (Luke xii.); the Son appointed it unto them (Luke xxii.), and the Holy Ghost bears. witness to the gift as theirs and ours (Heb. xii.); yea, more. Divine grace, in the complacency of infinite inalienable love, can strew blessings for "His own" along the whole pathway from even the fireside in Herod's judgment-hall to the seat beside Himself in heavenly glory; can rejoice that, having given them: the Father's words, "they have received them" without

questioning the degree, and can glory that "they have kept thy word" without questioning the manner.

As the heart passes, not without precious exercise, from one extreme to the other-from what man, alas! is, to what through mercy we know God to be one may ask the secret and foundation of it all. Blessed be God, we have both in these few words: "The blood of the everlasting covenant."

Condescending, though terrible, was the covenant of God with Israel at Sinai. Mercy shines in that delivered to them still later through the Mediator. Gracious was God in vouchsafing an everlasting covenant in favour of His house to David His servant; and still more gracious that which He will make with the house of Israel after those days, in the blessings of which we share. In His promise to Abraham's seed (Christ), God could leave room for the introduction of Gentiles into blessing on the ground of faith. But we must go to Eph. i. 3-6, &c., to learn the circumstances, height and extent of blessing involved in the everlasting covenant, as well as to John xvii. for its precious and sweetest application. In view of immediate failure that heavenly prayer was uttered on earth by divine lips in behalf of unworthy objects. When first love had waned, and allowed sin had effaced Pentecostal beauty (compare Jer. ii. 2, 3), John xvii. was written, as a servant of the Lord has well remarked, that it might be the stay and comfort, as indeed it has been, of His beloved ones, till the moment when confusion will for us have ever ceased. Sweet it will be to surround Him then, holding "strongly with Him," as those who have in any little measure shared His rejection !

J. K.

HOW CAN I HAVE PEACE?

GOD does not mean us to take up things lightly without exercise of soul. When the light of God shines into the conscience sin is felt and seen too, where it never was seen before. God shines in, and I find darkness. God cannot have to do with darkness. I find that in me which God cannot accept. How can God accept me?

I am always glad to see a conscience exercised thus. It is all useful to convict of sin. It is good for the light to probe to the bottom of the heart. It is awful to think what the human heart is; I do not mean in the gross forms of evil. There is something in the selfishness, the cold calculating reasoning of man's heart, worse than all the sins one could enumerate; yes, even of the decent man who keeps his character! Is there one single motive which governs your heart, decent and sober as you are, which governed Christ? Is there one feeling in your breast which was in Christ? Not one. What governs men? Selfishness. Not so Christ. There was no selfishness in Christ. In Him all was love. Love it was that brought Him down. Love gave Him energy when hungry and weary at the well. Love carried Him on, one constant unfailing stream of love. Never was He betrayed into anything contrary to it. Deserted, abandoned, betrayed, still there was one unwearying action of love. Selfishness can feel love. It is even lovely to man's mind, though he is the very

opposite of it; yet some are amiable and beautiful characters. But how do they use their amiability? To attract to self! Self governs man. Selfishness need not be put into him; it is there. All is sin from beginning to end-all self. Whatever be the form it takes, it is vanity. Is it not true of every one that will read this that some personal gratification, perhaps some little bit, has more power to occupy the thoughts than the agony of Christ? Not that He would have us always occupied with that; He would have us occupied with His person and glory.

What I want to prove then is, that we cannot think badly enough of what our hearts are. It is well that we should know it; for we cannot have the truth without in some measure judging the root and principle of evil within. But then have we any power to remedy the evil? No; none. But when brought to God, happily we get miserable about it. When there are desires after truth, I hope, because I see some goodness in God; but hope is dashed by seeing some evil in myself. That is not simplicity. It is judging God by some sort of knowledge of what I am. It may be true and righteous, but it is law. The principle of law is, that God is towards man according to what man is towards God. It is the principle which conscience always will act on; for according to conscience it is right. The evil is not in this, but in the fact that I am not brought to total despair. The light has not yet broken down the will, so as to make me cry out, “I am vile, and abhor myself in dust and ashes."

Beloved friends, if I take the ground of expecting anything from God, in virtue of what I am towards Him, all is over. There is nothing but condemnation.