obeys as also does the light. Alas, it was a too correct emblem of the nation's iniquities! But all was in vain. Israel no more repented at this awful miracle than Egypt or its monarch had done ages before, for

Legal terrors only harden

All the while they work alone.

But we are told of the end of this darkness as well as its coming on. It ceased outwardly at the very hour when Christ's awful cry told that all the doom and darkness due to sinners had filled His mighty, suffering soul, and had come between Him and God. 'About the ninth hour Jesus cried, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" When the three hours' outward emblem of the sinner's dark doom ceased, the awful and infinite reality of God's wrath was felt in Jesus' own soul. The darkness which externally ceased gathered itself up within the Sufferer's soul. "When Thou shalt make His SOUL an offering for sin." (Isa. liii. 10.) "Thou hast laid Me in the lowest pit, in DARKNESS, in the depths." (Psalm lxxxviii. 8.) Yet neither the darkness, while it lasted, nor its sudden ceasing seems to have wrought any softening in the bystanders; their last act was to mock Him with "vinegar" to drink. But to us who do at all

"Survey that wondrous cross,"

how blessed it is to know that Jesus our Lord Himself passed from His soul's deep darkness to God's own "marvellous light;" and we also have in HIM. In resurrection God's smile and the light of His countenance ended for ever to Jesus that awful darkness; and now He is to us "the Light of Life."

But the second miracle of the cross, the rending of the vail of the temple, has its precious teaching also. The temple being at the south-east extremity of Jerusalem was far distant from the hill of Calvary on the west of the city,

but no sooner did death rend the Lamb of God than God rent the ancient vail from top to bottom, spite of its enclosure within thick temple walls, and its top being out of man's reach (some thirty feet high), and its being woven of the strongest materials. This took place also at the ninth hour of the day, which seems to have been a very public hour at the temple (Acts iii. 1), and many priests would be there. All this was surely God's testimony to them; but their subsequent lies at the tomb of Jesus too plainly shew how they slighted this marvellous event: and painfully suggest how boldly they would dare to sew up the vail again!

But to us the vail is now for ever rent, and we who were born into light out of darkness by a "look at the Crucified One," are now worshippers in the light of the unveiled presence of God and the Lamb. No 'rood-screen' now intervenes; all believers are equally saints and priests, and equally brought within the vail by Jesus' death.

These are the New Testament gifts of God to us, and we should sin against God if we denied them; nor should we ignore them by sanctioning with our presence a worship that sets them aside. The moment we do so we begin to bring a vail over our spirits, and put ourselves back, more or less, into the place of Old Testament worshippers. But it was to deliver His saints from all 'vailed' and distant worship that Jesus died.

The third miracle recorded in Matthew is that of an earthquake which occurred at the same mighty moment, an earthquake so violent that by it "the rocks rent" (Palestine being a most rocky soil), and yet so God-guided was it that it simply opened the graves of sleeping saints, leaving others' graves untouched. After three days the sleepers awoke when Christ arose, and they entered the "holy city and appeared to many." In previous pages (vol. vii. page 149)

it has been shown how this " finger of God" pointed on to the coming first resurrection, and the details need not be again dwelt on.

To faith the graves of sleeping saints now lie open, so to speak, and the brief "three days" interval will soon pass, so near is the coming of our Lord, and then, while the rest of the dead continue in their graves, these sleepers will awake, and will enter the "holy city," the "holy Jerusalem" of Rev. xxi. 10, and appear (shine forth) to many; for "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." (Col. iii. 4.)

H. D.

LUKE AND DEMAS.

THREE times are Luke and Demas named in the Epistles of Paul, and each time together. Twice their names are joined in a salutation, first to the saints at Colosse and then to Philemon. The third time they are not joined, but are named in striking contrast: "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world . . . . . only Luke is with me." (2 Tim. iv. 10, 11.) The one name furnishes us with a bright example of faithfulness to Christ and His Gospel; the other serves as a beacon, warning against any departure of heart from Him "who loved us and gave Himself for us." Let us seek to dwell briefly on the little we are told of each.

That the Book called the Acts of the Apostles was written by Luke, is universally acknowledged ;* and though his

* From the similarity of certain expressions found in the Epistles of Paul and also in the Acts of the Apostles and Luke's Gospel, a recent writer, we have just learned, seeks to prove that both of the latter were written by Paul. The way in which the personal pronouns are used in the history in Acts seems clearly to disprove this theory.

name does not occur once in that book, yet he is often before us as we read it. The use of the pronoun in the first person of course intimates that the writer formed one of the company of which he writes. The first intimation we have of his being with Paul is in Acts xvi. 10-17. He seems to have joined him at Troas and to have accompanied him on his journey into Macedonia as far as Philippi. When the apostle went forward to Thessalonica and Berea, Luke was evidently not with him, but he joined him again some years afterwards on his last journey to Jerusalem, to which city he went with him. (Acts xx. 5, 6-xxi. 18.)

This however does not prove that they did not meet in the interim, and there is a passage which implies that they did. In 2 Cor. viii. 18, 19, Paul speaks of sending with Titus "the brother whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches" to receive the contributions for the poor saints. at Jerusalem. The supposition that it is Luke who is mentioned in this honourable way is confirmed by the fact, already stated, that he rejoined Paul in that journey which was taken expressly for the purpose of carrying alms to his nation. (Acts xxiv. 17.) He was with Paul at Jerusalem, and, if he did not accompany him to Cæsarea, he followed him, and was doubtless one of those friends who ministered unto him. (Acts xxiv. 23.) In the apostle's perilous journey to Rome as a prisoner, Luke was with him, and was also his companion in his imprisonment there. (Ch. xxvii. 1– xxviii. 16.) It was during this captivity that Paul wrote those letters in which Luke sends salutations, being named once as the beloved physician," and once as a "fellowlabourer." Whether Paul was set free as he hoped he should be (Phil. i. 24-26), and then imprisoned again, is not positively stated in Scripture, though probably it was so; but it is very certain that some time later he wrote as a prisoner who was ready to be offered, knowing that

the time of his departure was at hand. Here also Luke was with him. One had "forsaken" him and others had gone to various spheres of service, but here is the faithful companion still by the side of the suffering apostle, with whom doubtless he remained to the end.

What a beautiful portrait is this! Instead of following what at that time was a very lucrative profession, Luke evidently gave himself to the service of the Gospel and became the devoted friend of the great apostle of the Gentiles. In this unwearied and loving service his praise was in all the churches, and he was used of God to give us that precious record of the birth and ministry and death and resurrection of Christ that bears his name, and that other record of the mighty works of the Risen One wrought by means of His servants.

That Luke is unnamed in these narratives, that he never speaks of himself, that he says nothing of his movements or service during the periods of his absence from Paul, and that when he has to include himself in the history he is always hidden under the little words "we" and "us," are evidences of a deep and genuine humility which could only be learnt in the school of God, and manifest the true greatness spoken of in words which he records from the lips of the Lord, "he that is least among you all, the same shall be great." (Luke xiv. 48.) He chose the path of lowly service here, and great, we are sure, will be his reward in the day of Christ.

But when we turn to the brief statement with regard to Demas, what a solemn contrast we find! When Paul wrote his letters to the Colossians and Philemon, Demas, as well as Luke, was by his side, apparently not ashamed to identify himself with one who was a prisoner for the Gospel's sake. He also is spoken of as a "fellow labourer," and his name is linked with other companions of Paul. We pass over