of self and self-will yielded unto the King. The soul actually "risen with Christ is" born of God." Instead of the seed of Satan being then in him, he is a new creation in Christ Jesus. God's seed in him is Christ. Can the Lord Jesus sin ? "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not" (1 John v. 18). "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world" (1 John iv. 17).

Satan's most specious devices are put forth in these last times. He does not object to your studying the Word, or to your trying to imitate Christ. He will fill Christians' heads with "the letter of the Word" to any extent, its types, its shadows, its maxims and precepts. He will not object to religious serials among the worldlings. It lulls the conscience; have they not been reading sacred things from the Word of God? Yea, he will not object to their taking a deep interest in holy things and the lives of the saints. But what he so strongly objects to and hates, and all his energies are put forth to prevent, is a living, loving, blessed Christ entering into and taking possession of the heart of a believer. When that glorious consummation takes place, Satan too well knows that he is "cast out." No longer within the child of God, only outside, he can but throw a dart now and then. Oh! what a deplorable fact that our nature is so naturally incurable that we will gladly keep, as the inmate of our heart, this wily, bitter foe, rather than let in the Lord of Glory who died to give us His own blessed life, "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

IT is as impossible for a person to draw near to God with the confidence of faith while he lives in the love and practice of sin, as it is for a person to come to you and go from you at the same instant of time.-Erskine.

Seeing an end to self, we see God. To be no longer self-centred marks the change from the earthly to the heavenly state. Not until we let all go and receive the "great I Am " as all in all can we grasp the glorious mysteries of the heavenly kingdom.—Mrs. Upham.

THE GLORIOUS DOCTRINE OF THE PERSON OF CHRIST.

BY REV. C. CLEMANCE, B.A., D.D.
CHAPTER VI.

"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."-Phil. ii. 9-11.

WE

E have seen something of the clearness of the proof of our Saviour's Resurrection from the dead. Some forty days after that He disappeared from earth. He ascended to heaven. Men saw the starting point. Faith believes in the glorious home to which the Risen One has gone. Nor does faith believe in this without adequate reason. True, the proof of the ascension must obviously be different in its kind from that of the resurrection, but it is nevertheless clear and It adequate. It is recorded by Luke. was appropriate that the Conqueror of death should cease to remain in a dying world. Besides, Our Lord had prayed that he might be glorified with the Glory that He had with His Father before the

world was. He had distinctly said, "I leave the world, and go the Father."* He had declared that all power was given to Him in heaven and on earth. So that not only does Luke declare that Christ did ascend into heaven, but the Saviour's words prepare us to expect this as the certain issue of his work below. But the clearest proof of all has yet to be stated. Our Lord Jesus had assured the disciples that when He was gone from them He would send the promise of the Father upon them; they were to tarry in Jerusalem, till they were endued with power from on high. They waited accordingly, in loving expectancy; and the Power came according to the promisea power of the creation of which no reasonable account ever can be given but that which Peter gave:-"Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear." Jesus Christ our Lord, then, is IN HEAVEN. And this fact is, perhaps more helpful to us in thinking of heaven

*Acts i. 1-11.

as a place than any other truth taught us in the Word of God. That there should be another world where that which is spotless and deathless abides is a most reasonable conception: yea, that the great Creator should have some other world of intelligent beings than this sinful and disordered one, seems almost to be demanded by reason. And, even on the principle of "evolution," since "evolution "has had so many millions of ages in which to work on, it is strange indeed if in all these millenniums nothing better and grander than our sin-stained world has yet "evolved" in all space! But nothing fills up this blank, save Revelation. That does. Our Lord Jesus is in the region where they CANNOT die any more. Glorified humanity is on the throne of universal empire. HUMANITY IS NOT A HEADLESS COLUMN ! The Risen Lord is at the head of our race, 66 the preeminent One! "* "God manifest in flesh has been "received up into glory!"

The glorified Christ has received a name, the one which is above every name. The name that Christ now bears is the expression of a reality which is all that the name implies. Among men, many a one fails to realize the full meaning of his own titles. But it is not so here. Christ's new name-SAVIOUR--has accrued to him because in what He is and what He has done, is doing and will do, the rich meaning of the name is completely realized. Well may the apostle speak of it as "the name which is above every name!

No other being in the universe bears a name approximating it in glory. No other being ever will bear such a name.‡ No name can be conceived of so full of meaning; every word we apply to our dear Redeemer is but as a facet of that many-sided name. What is He to us?-Rock, Shepherd, Refuge, Sun, Shield, Wonderful, Counsellor, Prince of Peace, King, Prophet, Friend, Comforter, Mediator, Intercessor, High Priest? The word Saviour includes them all! And the name of the Lord Jesus is the only name which has saving power.§ In this name believers glory; by it, hearts are won; before it, all Heaven gathers in worship; at it, Hell trembles with fear! (To be continued.)

HOLINESS SYMBOLIZED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

The Blood Symbol.

BY A. LOWREY, D.D.

THE Bible is full of imagery devoted

to the illustration and enforcement of spiritual religion. All nature is laid under contribution to give effect to the lessons of purity contained in the Holy Scriptures. Art and human customs also are made to lend their analogies for the same purpose. The Lord is not only greatly in earnest to make His people. understand their obligations, but full of painstaking to reveal their privileges. It is most interesting to notice how all the parts of the Jewish service and institutions point like finger-boards in the direction of personal cleansing. It is still more instructive and thrilling to observe how the strong figures and beautiful similitudes of the Word of God directly inculcate holiness. The most efficacious elements in nature are drawn upon to teach the extent of salvation and the altitudes of Divine life; Blood, Fire, Water, Incense and Holy Oil are made to voice the possibilities and obligations of purity.

If we look into the Levitical code, we shall find that the blood-symbol crimsons every page. The great business of law-giver and priest it would seem was to sprinkle blood. The altar, the tabernacle, the people, and the priest himself, were sprinkled with blood. As Paul says (Heb. ix. 22), "Almost all things are by the law purged with blood." This typical blood-shedding and blood-sprinkling, which formed so large a part of the Jewish ceremonial, had three chief significations. First, it was symbolic of the necessity of a general atonement for the sins of the people. Nay, more, it was accepted as an actual expiation for sins in its prospective relation to Christ. Having no intrinsic efficacy,it was nevertheless full of anticipative and substitutional purification. It was a relative salvation. Second, it was the blood of the covenant. It was the seal and ratification of God's gracious engagements with His people. It was also a vivid representation of the loss of purity by man and the necessity of its restoration. It told the dismal story of human apostasy and foreshadowed the cost of redemption.

It said to a sinful world, your Saviour is a lamb that He might bleed, and He must bleed that He may be a propitiation. And having bled, that awful fact becomes a pledge and guaranty that God will cleanse those who trust in Jesus from all unrighteousness.

The ancient promise of God was a bloodsealed promise. As it is written: "Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the Testament which God hath enjoined unto you (Heb. ix. 18).

The third signification of this symbol respects its cleansing property. All things sprinkled were made typically clean by the blood. It was a ceremonial sanctification. This external application having so great virtue (by imputation) upon material objects, is made to argue stoutly the purgative quality and power of the blood of Christ when applied to man. Thus: "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?" (Heb. ix. 13, 14.) Here is an argument from the less to the greater, from the material to the spiritual, and from the human to the divine. In place of animal blood and ashes, we have the blood of Christ. In place of altars of wood and stone on which to rest the offering, we have the altar of the Eternal Spirit. Instead of unclean animals we have the spotless Christ. Instead of only fleshly purifications, we have a clean conscience. Wherefore, as a continual result, in lieu of presenting to God a gross material service, we become a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. It is this purifying potency of our Lord's sacrificial work that makes the word blood so prominent in the New Testament in connection with spiritual sanctification. It is this which has given rise to, and authorised the metonomy by which the blood of Christ is so continually represented as cleansing

cleansing from all sin-cleansing from all unrighteousness. It is not merely a basis of reconciliation, a ground for the cancellation of guilt and the remission of sins. Nor is it merely the procuring cause or price of purity-the consideration accepted of God as a sufficient reason or motive to work purity and generate life in a dead soul.

The blood of Christ is sacramental and causative; to trust in it is to be cleansed by it. It is an element whose contact with the touch of faith heals a leprous soul. It is the fountain filled, not with animal blood, or with human blood, but with the blood of the Lamb. This Lamb being offered to God through the Eternal Spirit, has poured forth a crimson stream, which is impregnated with infinite merit and power of lustration. In this element the robes of character may be and must be washed until they are made white. is the sole qualification for heaven. It is the only essential and indispensable meetness required, that we may dwell among the saints in light. It alone gives a valid claim to the inheritance of all them who are sanctified. All antecedent grace and concomitant relations are comprehended in perfect holiness. It is like the trunk of a tree. If you have that in its integrity and in a live condition, you have all its roots and branches.

This

The forces of religion are massed by entire sanctification. It secures the maximum of spiritual power. It graduates life and efficiency up to the standard of the highest possibility. And this is most effectually done by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, who is the great antitype of the paschal lamb, and all the bleeding birds and beasts of the Jewish ritual.

Bless God, "we are not come to the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire .. but we are come to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel" (Heb. xii. 24). "Let us draw near, then, with a true heart in full assurance of faith." There is no presumption in coming even with boldness to this throne of grace-saving grace.

HEART-GODLINESS pleases God best, but lifegodliness honours Him most; the conjunction of the two makes a complete Christian.

COVENANT BLESSINGS.

BY REV. GEORGE WARNER.

“And all Judah rejoiced at the oath for they had sworn with all their heart, and they sought Him with their whole desire; and He was found of them: and the Lord gave them rest round about."-2 Chron. xv. 15.

AS King Asa was returning with his

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army to Jerusalem, from a most signal and God-given victory over mighty host of enemies, he was met by the prophet Oded with this inspired message: Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; the Lord is with you, while ye be with Him; and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you; but if ye forsake Him, He will cast you off for ever." The king and his people were then informed that God had other work for them, viz., the utter extermination of idolatry from their midst, and the turning of the hearts of their whole nation to the Lord their God. "Be ye strong, therefore," added the prophet, "and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded." Encouraged by this message, Asa at once set about the work assigned him. First of all having, by Divine grace, prepared his own heart, he set in order his own household, deposing his own mother from being queen, on account of her shameless idolatry. He then "put away the abominable idols," throughout his whole realm. Not satisfied with this negative work, "he gathered together all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them (who had fallen to him) out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon," and with them "entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul." The result is given in the passage above cited. The king and people

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rejoiced in the oath," because they had sworn with all sincerity, and "God was found of them," and "gave them rest," not only in their own spirits, but "from their enemies round about." God is the same now, reader, that He was then. Would we enjoy our covenant privileges, we must renew, and find grace to keep and rejoice in our oath of fidelity to our God and Saviour, and more blessed issues shall arise to us than were ever known to Israel of old.

The Covenant of Allegiance.-The example of Moses, Joshua, and Samuel, under the old dispensation, and that of many of the mightiest saints under the new, encourages us to seek special good for ourselves, and strength for service towards others in specific covenant engagement with God. Indeed, we can be right neither towards ourselves, our fellows, or our God, till we find Him to make us So. His claims must be respected, and we must individually consecrate the whole of our personality to His love and service. In the light of the claims of creation and chivalry surely this is our reasonable service. What we have, we have received from Him, we hold it in trust for Him, and we have not commenced life in earnest until it is absolutely and publicly pledged to Him. "All Judah rejoiced" to do this. What a pity that the following statement, publicly made, is allowed to go unchallenged :-"In most of the churches of this land, I can count upon the fingers of one hand the fully consecrated workers belonging to it." When, my friend, you become one of the few so fully consecrated to God, and look to Him to do it for you, He will put your sin to death, and cause you to seek its destruction wherever it may appear. You should be a thousand times more concerned for this than ever patriot was to put down rebellion in the land of his birth.

When the grace of this new covenant is yours, you will enter into this work as Judah did, with heartiness and joyousness. We do not serve in this war as slaves, conscripts, or mercenaries; our Captain has no room for such poltroons. We have taken the oath of allegiance with the heart of a soldier, and have entered into covenant as on our bridal day. Ours is a service of love, in which the joy of the Lord is our strength. We march to the war confident of victory, because we are absolutely certain that while our covenant relations are right, no weapon formed against us can prosper." Our dependance is not upon our covenant, but upon our God. The religion of vows and promises and resolutions and covenants always breaks down; these are worse than useless if they leave us short of God; as they help us to Him, and to rest in Him when found, they are among the most important conditions of the Divine life in man.

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What we want is the Lord God as our strength, and resting short of this, our enemies will laugh us to scorn, When He becomes a sanctifying presence in our hearts, ruling and garrisoning His own temple, furnishing us with power, and baptising us to use it, we shall exult in victory; but all the glory is His. For this purpose Judah "sought Him with their whole desire." So seek Him; if right hands or right eyes be in the way, off with the one, and out with the other: and cry to Him with the importunity the importance of the cause demands, and God will reveal Himself to you. You may possibly have an experience like that of Abraham, who, when entering into special covenant with God, had an horror of great darkness come over him, but he stood by and defended his sacrifice till God revealed Himself unto him; and for all time his life manifested more of the Divine presence and power.

Its Blessed Issues.-It is related that these Jews found God, and that finding Him, He gave them rest. We have more marvellous revelations of Him than they were acquainted with, and it is our own fault if we have not a sublimer rest than that which they knew. When God makes Himself known by His Spirit, He is seen in all the affection of a father. Christ teaches us that one of the last things that sin destroys is parental solicitude. Those who are evil in many things are yet disposed to give certain good things to their suppliant children. How much more will this infinitely affectionate Father, whom evil never affected, care for and supply the wants of all who are His. To know Him by His own revealing, what dignity, what blessedness, what security, is here! We find in Him the Creator. power of a The Jews had marvellous illustrations of His power. For them he divided the Red Sea, and for them He spread a table in the wilderness and met their unbelief with the challenge, "Is anything too hard for the Lord ?" His power knows no exhaustion, and His Almightiness is pledged to save to the uttermost those who come to Him through the mediation of His Son. He who raised Jesus from the dead shall raise His people into the likeness of Himself. We find in Him the wisdom of an infallible ruler. We may not understand things as

they occur, but we are content that God does. Above all our circumstances and surroundings God lives and reigns, pledged to make all things work together for good to those who love Him. With infinite wisdom, power, and affection sworn for your present and eternal good, swear eternal allegiance to Jehovah, and then as a child of Zion be joyful in your king. God " gave them rest." And in the condition indicated you have the rest of decision. It is no longer a question whether you are the Lord's or not. Your heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. You have rest of soul upon the atonement of His love. Your foundation is the immoveable Rock of Ages. If you experimentally know your privileges, you have rest from civil strife. You are not divided against yourself, but your whole being is leavened and sanctified by God and to Him. You then find rest from the carking cares and corroding anxieties of life, and have a foretaste of the rest of heaven on the way to your eternal home. Is your experience like this, or are you sighing,

Intelligence.

"Lesson of the Pentecost."

After the matter of our present number was fully made up, no space being left but in the department of Intelligence, we received a paper officially marked, and containing the following communication from Rev. H. M. Crosbie, of Derby. This communication first appeared in The Congregationalist, and was copied from that paper into the Christian. We give this communication to our readers on account of its timely appearance-on account of the subject treated of and especially on account of the very impressive manner in which the subject is presented. May it receive from all believers a most attentive and prayerful reading.

THE LESSON OF PENTECOST. "Pentecost was one of the three great religious festivals of the Jews. The Passover was the first, Pentecost was the second, and the Feast of Tabernacles was the third. At these festivals, which were celebrated annually, all the