us to say, "How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand." In the wonderful doxology at the end of Rom. xi. there is the same thought of treasures, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"

It is very important to see that apart from Christ, the Son of God, man cannot attain any intimacy with God, and God has no means to reveal Himself and to tell out His bosom secrets. The apostle John is one with the apostle Paul on this point: "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Men of the world will pay compliments to the Scriptures, and say, that in their time they have fulfilled a very good office, but now it is time to lay them aside, that men's minds may grasp higher and deeper things. But this is setting aside God's true revelation of Himself for the scanty things that the mere creation can reveal. "The heavens declare the glory of God" to men that know nothing of God in Christ, and this renders them without excuse according to Rom. i. 20. But it is only in Christ that any of God's hidden secrets can be learned by man; and to have this thoroughly settled in the soul is a great preservative against Satan's delusions.

From the bosom of God the secrets of God must be obtained, and He is ready to reveal them-" To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col. i. 27.) In chap. ii. there are two mysteries the mystery of God, and the mystery of Christ; and they are distinct. The mystery regarding the Church is, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." God's purpose is to reproduce Christ Himself in the believer, morally now, and bodily also at the resurrection. The

fulness of Christ, that is, His body, will not be complete until we are in His likeness in glory.

To the Corinthians Paul says, "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery;" but he could not unfold it to them. because they were carnal and babes in Christ. To the Ephesians and Colossians he could speak of the heavenly mysteries, because they were in a condition to receive them. Both epistles are addressed "to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ."

In Col. ii. 2, the apostle sums up the two mysteries of which he had already spoken in chap. i. (vv. 25-27). The mystery of Christ had been kept hid in the past. But having a revelation of it now, we can go back to certain Old Testament types, and see it hidden in them. We also get a glimpse of it in John xvii., in Christ's prayer that those whom the Father has given Him may be one, and may be brought into His glory.

The world has some notion of the A, B, C, of the gospel as a remedial system, and they think there is nothing more than this in the Scriptures. But the believer is in the secret of God, and knows what God's purposes are in Christ, and awaits their fulfilment.

THE FIRST ADAM AND THE LAST.

Rom. v. 12-21.

THE teachings of this profound section of Scripture are but feebly apprehended by any of us, and it is to be feared that by many they are much neglected; yet the truths set forth in these few verses are of exceeding importance, and it was never more necessary that believers should be established in them. Learned men are inventing all kinds of theories rather than bow to the simple state

ments of Scripture concerning God's ways with man, and it would be well if all the Lord's people would seek by a more prayerful study of this whole epistle, and not least of this weighty portion of it, to fortify themselves against the fair speeches that are so calculated to deceive the simple.

The word " Wherefore," with which this section begins, connects it with the whole preceding argument, though especially with the former verses of this chapter. The writer has shown very clearly at the end of chapter iv., how all believers in the Lord Jesus are affected by His death "on account of " their sins, and by His resurrection "on account of" their justification. He now by an illustration shows how it is that "the many" are affected by the action of "the one," and makes it plain that in God's ways with man there was always something beyond individual dealing. Thus the federal headship of Christ is brought into marked contrast with the natural headship of Adam; the "first man" being the cause of condemnation and death to all who spring from him by natural generation, and the "second Man" being the source of justification and life to all who are linked with Him by regeneration.

Adam was the appointed head of the race, and therefore not by the woman, but by him sin entered. Sin was in the universe before, but by Adam it entered the world; it invaded the race of man, and became a power reigning over man, a principle within him, and a state involving righteous condemnation. Sin entered, and death by sin, and thus by the one sin of Adam death spread through to the whole race, because his sin was regarded as the sin of the race, which stood or fell in him.

All sinned, "for until the law sin was in the world,” and

though sin is not imputed or set down to account (see Philemon 18, Gk.) in the absence of law, yet death reigned; and the reign of death is the conclusive proof of the existence of the sin, apart from which death could not be known. Death reigned "even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.". During all that no-law period, when there was no divine standard by which to measure men's acts and turn sin into transgression, death was the standing witness of the existence of sin-death not simply as each man's personal desert, but as the penal consequence of Adam's sin.

The mention of Adam serves to bring out the statement that he was a type of the Coming One, that is, of the One who was to come after him in the same public and representative character that he had sustained to the race; the second man, the last Adam. The first was a type of the last, inasmuch as in each case by the action of the one the many are affected.* But though Adam was a type of Him who was to come, there are limitations and contrasts, which accordingly are brought out in verses 15-17. "But not as the trespass, so also is the free gift. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many." (Rom. v.) Some regard the "much more" of this verse as simply argumentative; but it rather seems to express abundance, and to indicate

* For some of the thoughts expressed in this paper I am indebted to others, and the following table, slightly altered, is taken from Dr. San

that the provision is not simply adequate to the need, but abounds far beyond it. The grace of God does not restore man to Eden and positive innocence, but brings him into a state and position far beyond what Adam ever knew, or, so far as we may learn, could have known apart from the fall.

But if this grace and gift abound, it is "by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ." Adam is not called "the one man" in the opening of this verse; that fact is well known; but the grand truth brought into prominence here is the fact that all the undoing work of Adam is more than reversed by One who is also MAN. As condemnation and death came through a man, so through a man must come justification and life. But where in Adam's race should one be found who could become the source of blessing to men, seeing that all who spring by ordinary generation from Adam are by their very existence subject to death? What created mind could have answered this question? But the question was never left to the creature, for it was settled by infinite wisdom and infinite love before the necessity arose. And in the answer we have the full display of the grace of the blessed God, and an equal display of the grace of Him who, according to the counsel of eternity, did Himself become man to fulfil the purpose of divine love. It is by the grace of this "One Man" that God's grace and gift abound to men: "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become rich." (2 Cor. viii. 9.) It was by becoming man that the glorious Son of God took the first mighty step in the wondrous work by which the grace of God and the gift (of righteousness) abound unto the many.

The point of verse 16 is, that whereas the one offence