Canticles (chap. ii. 17) gives us the expression of her desire, saying, "Be thou like to a roe, or a young hart, on the mountains of Bether" (division or separation); i.e. passing over all that divides or separates from her the object of her longing heart. Peter commends His appearing to the elders of the flock as the consummation to be looked for: "When the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." And, lastly, John, in his first epistle, exhorts the children to abide in Him, "that when He shall appear we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." Again he says, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." Our being with Him, our being like Him, and our being an adequate testimony of the magnificence of His grace, all wait for that day of glory so soon to break upon us, "when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." May He so powerfully captivate our hearts and occupy our affections that, having so blessed a hope in Him, we may purify ourselves, even as He is pure, looking for that crown of righteousness which He will surely give to all them that love His appearing. Because He lives we live also; as He is, so are we in this world; where He is, there we shall be also; and when He shall appear we shall be like Him, and appear with Him in glory! What can we say to such a magnificent chain of associated blessedness, but anticipate the language we shall adopt when all this is accomplished, falling down at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and worshipping Him who sits upon the throne, saying, "Amen, Alleluia”? (Rev. xix. 4.)

W. R.

THE CONSECRATION OF THE FIRST-BORN. THE words that Moses heard out of the midst of the fire in the bush must not only have awakened in his heart the remembrance of God's goodness towards the fathers, but also have shown him that he had a personal link Iwith the God of Abraham; for God had said to him, "I am the God of thy father." (The faith of Moses' parents is made mention of in Heb. xi.) But "Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God." Such was necessarily the effect produced on the heart by the presence of God when He was not known as the Justifier. The instant it becomes a question of appearing before God, conscience makes itself heard bearing witness that we are sinners.

When Jacob had seen in his dream the magnificent vision of the ladder, whose top reached heaven, he awoke to the consciousness of the presence of God, and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Surely God had only spoken to him in words of grace and goodness; but his conscience in the presence of a holy God condemned him, and his soul was filled with fear.

We find the same thing in the case of Isaiah the prophet. (See Isa. vi.) He saw "the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. . . . And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory."

Then the prophet cries, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." God's answer to the prophet's cry, though it brought fully into light the real secret of his distress, applied to him the needed remedy at the same moment. One of the seraphims touched his lips with a live coal from off the altar of burnt-offering, and said, "Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged."

God knows what we need. He acts by His Spirit to produce "truth in the inward parts," bringing us into His own presence, that there we may be made aware of our true state; but there too He makes known to us the fulness of that redemption by virtue of which He is righteous in "justifying him who believes in Jesus." (Rom. iii. 26.) Before Christ had suffered for our sins, God, knowing what He was going to do in order to put them away righteously, "forbore" with sins; that is to say, He did not impute them to those who believed on Him, although He could not yet direct their hearts to an already accomplished redemption. Psalm xxxii., which is quoted in Rom. iv., speaks of the blessedness of this forgiveness, though still looking on, in the spirit of prophecy, to its complete fulfilment; but after the death of Christ, God could make known to all that He had been righteous in granting it in anticipation of the work of redemption. (Rom. iii. 25.) In the various offerings God set forth by means of types, which all pointed to the one great sacrifice, the principle on which alone the righteousness of God could be satisfied with respect to sin; for "without shedding of blood

there is no remission." (Heb. ix. 22.) God was revealing Himself as "the God that taketh away iniquity, transgression, and sin;" and although only in figure, still He made it clear that for the putting away of sin there must be shed the blood of a spotless victim. But if we are thus delivered from judgment, we are at the same time sanctified, or set apart in holiness to God. Therefore we read (Heb. ix. 13, 14): "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" This is precisely what Isaiah found through grace at the seraph's hand; and we shall see the same principle presented in figure in the history of Moses, at the time when "the deliverance," of which God had spoken to him in the bush, was about to be accomplished.

God had said to Moses, "The cry of the children of Israel is come up unto me and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." (Ex. iii. 9, 10.) In accomplishing the work of deliverance God brought nine plagues upon the Egyptians. At the moment when He was about to send upon them the last, which was to smite all the first-born of the land of Egypt, He instituted the passover as the means of sheltering His people from the sword of the destroying angel, who was to execute His judgment. The blood of the paschal lamb, sprinkled on the two side-posts and on the upper

door-post, put the house and all who were in it beyond the reach of the sword of judgment: "For," it is said, "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." (Ex. xii. 12, 13.) At the same time the Lord says to Moses: "Sanctify unto me all the first-born, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine." (Ex. xiii. 1, 2.) Similarly in Num. iii. 12, 13 we find it stated of the children of Israel: "All the first-born are mine; for on the day that I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the first-born in Israel." God comes down to deliver His people; that is the first truth set before us, and the immediate result of it is that His people are set apart for Him. This great moral principle is thus clearly established, the destruction of the first-born being an intimation of God's thoughts as to this world, shadowing forth beforehand the judgment reserved for it.

The deliverance corresponds in extent to the judgment, and expresses at the same time the measure of personal sanctification, which is intimately linked up with the deliverance itself. "Fear not," it is said: "for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; THOU art MINE." And again, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.” (Isa. xliii. 1, 21.) So too, after the complete deliverance of the people of Israel from the land of Egypt, God