according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.

2.--PREDESTINATION.

Here again we have to enquire, What is predestination ? The word occurs several times in the New Testament; it is therefore important that we should know its meaning. The English word "predestinate" is simply to decree or determine beforehand; and the Greek word used here is similar—“to fix determinately, to decree, to destine beforehand." See Acts iv. 28.

God, then, foreknew us as ruined in the first Adam and bearing His fallen image (1 Cor. xv. 49), and as therefore just suited to the display of His grace in Christ Jesus, the last Adam; He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, definitely fixed or predestinated us in Christ unto sonship (Eph. i. 4-5), "to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom. viii. 29), that He might, in resurrection, be "the Firstborn among many brethren," all by grace bearing the likeness of Him who is essentially the "image of the invisible God."

Such was His purpose in Christ Jesus before time, and on the ground of this purpose He began to act on sinners at Rome in the apostle's day, and since then on us. Finding us in sin's darkness and death," alienated from the life of God," He "called" us.

3.-CALLING.

This is the third and centre link in this golden chain, and until we were brought under its power we had no warrant to trace the other links either backward or forward, but now we can do so with joy. What is it, then, to be

called?" Other Scriptures refer to God's call. Paul acknowledges these very Christians in Rome as among the called of Jesus Christ." Of himself he wrote to the

Galatians, "When it pleased God, who separated me (like Jeremiah) from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me;" and when he was defending the truth of God before the Galatians he expressed his astonishment that they were so soon removed from Him who called" them in the grace of Christ. Is calling, then, the presentation of the gospel and the commandment to believe in it? It is surely far more than this, for observe, that those who are called arejustified" Whom He called, them He also justified." But all who hear the gospel and the command to believe it are not justified; therefore calling is something morethan the outward hearing of the gospel. Yes, beloved fellow Christian, you and I know that it is nothing less than the sovereign act of God's mercy in regenerating the soul by His Spirit and His word: "As many as received Him were born of God." (John i. 12-13.) "Of His own will begat He us by the word of truth." (James i. 18.) We know that the proud reasonings of man's corrupt heart rebel at this. In Paul's day human pride objected to it, replying against God; and now that it is more than ever rife it should be met with the same reproof with which Paul met it--"Who art thou, O man that repliest against God?"

In Adam's fall, the whole race of which he was the head also fell, and became as the clay, the "lump," of which Paul speaks in chapter ix. of this epistle. All were obnoxious to the justice of God, for if all had been left to perish, God would have been just, for all had sinned. But it is on this "lump" that the God of grace is pleased to act in sovereign right of mercy, "to show His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had before prepared unto glory, even on us whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles."

It is sad to find the amount of opposition that exists against this truth even among God's children, owing to the lack of full subjection to God's word. But the fact remains. God called then and calls now, and "whom He called, them He also justified."

4. JUSTIFICATION.

What is it to be justified? "How shall man be just with God?" was a question raised by Job of old. The verb "to justify" in the original means "to hold as guiltless, to accept as righteous;" therefore to be justified is to be cleared, acquitted, approved, and accepted. If we are by nature guilty and condemned, and if there is to be no compromise of God's character, but the display of all His attributes of justice equally with mercy; no lessening of the guilt of sin nor relaxing of the sentence against it—how is this to be effected? Again, if He who has the right to condemn and the power to execute the sentence is the One who clears and accepts, we still have to ask and discover how? The answer is given in the infallible word of God.

46

We have seen that it is "GOD who justifieth " (Rom. viii. 33); "The Scripture, foreseeing that GOD would justify the Gentiles through faith" (Gal. iii. 8); again, That HE might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth." (Rom. iii. 26.) This He does in grace. Man has no claim on Him for justification; he deserves nothing but judgment; he is a sinner, declared by God to be such, and nothing else (Gen. vi. 5); his conduct without an exception proves it, for "there is none that doeth good, no not one" (Rom. iii. 12); and when convinced by the Holy Spirit of his real state he confesses it to be so. Therefore justification must be by grace, by free favour; and so it is written, "being justified freely by His grace." (Rom. iii. 26.)

Christ's finished work is the ground on which a righteous God, whose name is Holy, can honourably acquit all who believe on Christ Jesus. In Him we are justified"justified by His blood," not by His life; but being reconciled by His death, we are also "saved by His life." By virtue of Christ's endless life, with all its activities and capabilities, we are preserved to the end, to eternity, for He has said, "Because I live ye shall live also." Faith enables our souls to apprehend the value of His justifying blood, and unites us to the living Christ of God, so that we are "justified by faith;" and the faith by which we are thus justified" without works," produces good works; and therefore, as James teaches, we are also "justified by works."

What grace of God to pardon and accept in the Son of His love everyone who rests in Him and in His finished work! What more could He do? Yet one thing more which forms the last link in this chain "Whom He justified, them He also glorified."

5.-GLORY.

In answer to the prayer of the Lord Jesus in John xvii. 1, God has glorified His Son (Acts iii. 13), taking Him up from the dust of death into which He had brought Him for our sakes, receiving Him up into heaven, and seating Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but in that which is to come, the age of millennial glory. God "raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory," and in Him, the members of His body, the church, have been raised up also, and made to sit together with Him in the heavenlies, so that, virtually, we have been "glorified." Yes, God who reached us by the wondrous stoop of His beloved Son unto

death, has uplifted us by His power through the cross, and has brought us to HIMSELF, to participate in the glory He has given to Christ; and that glory will yet be manifested, for "when Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also be manifested with Him in glory."

God's foreknowledge and predestination of us were before time; we have experienced this calling in time, and give God thanks. On the testimony of His word we rest, assured that we are justified by His grace through faith, and we rejoice; but for the last link-our manifestation in glory-we hope, and are called patiently to wait. When He shall be manifested we shall be like Him," and shall be glorified together with Him.

Thus, beloved fellow-saints, we see that God has, for His own eternal glory and our eternal joy, bound us to Himself by this golden chain of inseparable links; and may the knowledge and belief of this move us to diligence, to constant, simple trust, and to whole-hearted devotedness in service, and also enable us joyfully to endure whatever suffering He is pleased to lead us through. To Him be glory. Amen. H. H.

ORDER AND DISCIPLINE IN THE CHURCH.

NOTES OF BIBLE-READING AT A CONFERENCE.

IN the early chapters of the Acts we see the Church in its best state. It was built up by prayer and testimony. The 3000 were added, and obedience to the Lord followed in baptism and the breaking of bread. Further on we read that the churches had "peace," and were " edified" and "walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." This is the normal state of the Church of God, and it is a rightly ordered church which walks after this pattern.