cleanse you.

A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them " (Ezekiel xxxvi. 25). It was the most vivid and beautiful view of the character and offices of Christ ever entertained by the prophet Malachi, who, standing on the border of gospel times, and in the daybreak of its coming light, says, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His Temple, even the messengers of His covenant, whom ye delight in; behold He shall come saith the Lord of Hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? For He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap. And He shall sit as a refiner and as a purifier of silver, and He shall purify the sons of Levi; and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness" (Mal. iii. 1).

Of course, when the Gospel dispensation burst upon the world, like the freshness and beauty of spring, light upon this subject brightened from prophetic twilight nto the effulgence of perfect day. It was like the sun coming out from a partial eclipse to walk the heavens without a cloud to obstruct his beams. It was the fulfilment of the beautiful passage, "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land" (Cant. ii. 11.)

John the Baptist ushers in the new dispensation by giving pre-eminence to holiness. His statement clearly shows that thorough work and complete cleansing were to characterise the new administration: "And now, also, the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire. I, indeed, baptize you with water unto repentance, but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into His garner; but He will burn up the chaff

with unquenchable fire" (Matt. iii. 10). Here is the beginning of that intense glow of holy fire to which all the preparations of Biblical and religious antiquity pointed. It is the consummation provided for by the Father's love, the Son's sacrifice, and the Spirit's offices.

SPIRITUAL HEALTH.

BY THOMAS D. MARSHALL.

THE HERE are six simple, pleasant, but immutable conditions upon the fulfilment of which depends the maintenance of our physical health. We must (1) rest, (2) be clean, (3) eat pure food, (4) breathe pure air, (5) live in light, and (6) labour or take exercise. It will be found that these conditions symbolize and express varied relations in which our glorious Saviour and Healer stands toward us, and in which it is necessary that we should experimentally know Him, if we would enjoy that inestimable bliss and blessedness, "Spiritual Health."

REST.-The Physician's first care is to give his patients rest, and the strong man cannot maintain his strength without it. Perfect soul-rest is a primary and indispensable condition of spiritual health. When Christ says, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, He means that He will actually remove sorrow, fear, and care from the hearts of those who trust Him to this end.

He gives rest from sorrow. A lady of my acquaintance was plunged into great sorrow by some exceedingly painful circumstances; she did not then know the Lord, and her life was consuming away with grief. A friend said to her, "If you would go to the Lord Jesus and trust Him to do so, He would take your sorrow away." As soon as her Christian friend had left, she threw herself down before the Lord and trusted Him to do this for her. She says, "He heard my prayer, took my sorrow from my heart, and filled me there and then with His own joy. For the two years since my life has been one song of praise and gladness, and many of my friends have been led to trust themselves to Jesus through what I have told them."

He gives rest to the conscience.

Twenty-eight years ago a consciousness of my unrighteousness and ill-desert brought me to Him as a Saviour. He showed me that "He had borne my sins in His own body on the tree," and so removed my burden of guilt and its accompanying foreboding of deserved judgment, giving me instead a sweet assurance of His love, which has been increasing in depth and strength until now.

He gives rest from care. When we confide our perplexities and needs to Him, He takes away our anxiety and imparts to us the peace that fills His own heart. "Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts."

Our rest in the Lord can only be in exact proportion to our self-surrender to Him. A soft couch is a better restingplace than a heap of stones, because when we lie upon it, it sustains us in every part, and not merely at points: but we only rest on our couch to the extent that we surrender ourselves to it; standing by its side we get no rest from it at all; sitting, or only partly reclining, we only get a measure of rest. To get perfect rest we must give up ourselves to it in effortless recumbency. So is it with Christ. He is always a perfect Resting-place, but He can only give us perfect rest when our entire being is utterly abandoned to Him —when we present our "bodies" to Him "a living sacrifice," and place in His hands the control of all our circumstances, and the ordering of our entire lives. This voluntary surrender of self and will is equivalent to that taking" of His

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yoke" which precedes the finding of that second and most delightful rest of soul which He promises in Matt. xi. 29. An esteemed minister stated at a public meeting, in my hearing, that about a year previously he had been impressed with the force of the promise in Isa. xxvi. 3. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee," and, knowing that He did not enjoy that perfect peace, had properly concluded that it was because his mind was not truly "stayed" on God. He saw, too, that he had not definitely obeyed the precept in Romans xii. 1, "present your bodies a living sacrifice,

holy, acceptable unto God." As nearly as I can remember his words he said, "I went to God and presented myself to Him in the name of Jesus, I told him that I now gave my hands and feet, my whole body, my mind, my memory, and my will, my wife, children, property, reputation, and friends-all-to Him who had redeemed me. There I quietly left myself. Let me tell you a result. In the year that has passed since, many trials and sorrows have come to me. My fellow-labourer in the Gospel died. my mother died, the Lord has taken to Himself my eldest son, my second son is now lying dangerously ill, but my mind has been kept in perfect peace, and I am in perfect peace now."

The bosom of the Son of God is the bosom of Infinite love, His arms are of Almighty strength. Fully to trust Him is to perfectly repose. "This is the Rest wherewith ye shall cause the weary to rest" (Isa. xxviii. 12).

"Blessed Jesus! Would'st thou know Him? Give thyself entirely to Him."

QUESTIONS ANSWERED.

BY DR. LOWREY.

WE have received the following note: "TO THE EDITOR OF 'DIVINE LIFE.'

DEAR SIR,-A Christian man has become exercised in heart on the subject of holiness. He is officially connected with an Association of a religious character in which it is his office to say and do things the righteousness of which he gravely questions. If he retires from his position he will lose not only the income attached to it, but social position and probably the esteem of his friends.

"In such a case would you think it wisest to give specific advice, or to counsel him only to surrender himself and circumstances unreservedly to God, and to look alone to Him and His Word for guidance?

"Yours very sincerely."

RESPONSE.

The answer requested respects not a question of casuistry, but direction as to the giving of advice under given circumstances.

The silence of our enquirer as to the

particular offices which the business relations referred to require, precludes anything but a hypothetical reply. If the acts demanded are plainly sinful because forbidden by the Word of God, the anxious person should be advised to gently refuse to perform those specific acts on the ground of conscientious scruples, but not to leave his position if the business as a whole is legitimate. If he cannot be allowed thus. to discriminate he should be advised to resign his place at any cost.

But if the offices referred to are not such as we find expressly, or by fair implication, forbidden in the Word of God, but belong to that class of practices which are of questionable consistency with holiness, then the anxious person should be

counselled to surrender himself unreservedly to God and to look alone to Him and His word for guidance.

1st:

In settling such question, four things should be kept constantly in mind. The law of expediency; some things are lawful but inexpedient on the ground of their relative injuriousness. 2nd: The duty of abstaining from the very appearance of evil and of maintaining rigid prudence and circumspection. 3rd: As the Bible is a book of general principles in opposition to a code of minute statutes it must be recollected that many things have been prohibited in general terms which are not specifically condemned. 4th The dictates of a tender conscience, scripturally enlightened, should in all cases be obeyed whether supported by the scruples of others or not. It is never safe to borrow the conscience of another man, because special light and specific duty may make a pursuit wrong to one which may not be so to others. To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (Jas. iv.).

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It seems from the teachings of Paul that a man who violates his convictions involves himself in sin, though the act itself may not be intrinsically wrong. "But to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean to him it is unclean" (Rom. xiv. 14).

On the other hand, care should be taken not to carry our scruples so far as to create a morbid conscience. "Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth."

The spirit is promised in just such

emergencies to "guide us into all truth." "Let us pray."

ERROR CORRECTED.

"Christian Perfection in the Light of Scripture."

THE above is the title of an article of nearly nine columns, written by the Rev. Canon Garbett, M.A., an article cited in the May number of the Pathway of Power from the Christian Advocate and Review of January, 1874. The editor of the Pathway speaks of it as a "most valuable article." The venerable author discusses the subject under two distinct questions. "(1). Is the doctrine of perfection taught in Scripture ? (2). What is the perfection that is taught?" These questions fairly and distinctly raise the only really important issues that divide believers upon the subject, and we are quite happy that an individual of such standing, and the Pathway of Power through him, have led off in the discussion of this central doctrine of Scripture. The perfect candour with which the whole subject is discussed in that article would, conscience aside, be an admonition to us

to

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walk by the same rule" in all our utterances, and will be a sufficient apology for our remarks upon the subject. Christian discussion of .differences of opinion honours our Divine religion. Without further remarks, we proceed to a consideration of the article before us.

THE FIRST QUESTION our author answers in the affirmative, and fully verifies his position. "To the question, Is the doctrine of perfection taught in Scripture? I unhesitatingly answer," he says, "in the affirmative." "That, in precise and emphatic words, perfection is both taught and inculcated, as a thing attainable in the present life, and which ought to be attained, admits of no question." individual, we are quite confident, will attempt to answer the arguments by whi ch our author verifies the above statements, the teaching of the Scriptures cited being too plain, and specific, and absolute in their meaning to admit of doubt or denial.

No

upon us not only as a duty but a privilege, every one must perceive to be a question of supreme importance in itself, and as the main enquiry now before us. In his answer to this question, Canon Garbett, if not self-consistent, is very plain and explicit. "The end of man," he says, "is God, and the man whose undivided being is devoted to God is the perfect man.' "The telos (perfection) of redemption is the salvation and sanctification of the whole man-body, soul, and spirit; the teleios is the man in whom it is accomplished, and who has become, in the renewal of the soul into the image of God, and the redemption and purification of the dying flesh, the very temple of the Holy Ghost." "Perfection," he says again, 66 is the entire dedication of the whole undivided self to God; not of the reason without the heart, nor of the heart with. out the understanding, nor of the understanding without the conscience, nor of the conscience without the will, nor of the will without the service of the body; but of the whole undivided undistracted being surrendered to the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God." We have, in this last sentence the condition of perfection and not the thing itself. It is God's prerogative, after we have "surrendered our whole undivided being to the guidance of the Holy Spirit," to "sanctify us wholly," to "make us perfect in every good work to do. His will," and to "put His Spirit within us, and to cause us to walk in His statutes, and to keep His judgments and do them." When we are by the Spirit and grace of God thus sanctified, thus perfected in every good work, and caused to "stand perfect and complete in all the will of God," then, and only then, are we "perfect in Christ Jesus."

If our Canon had stopped here, and had not afterwards limited and qualified his utterances so as to give another and different aspect to his whole doctrine, we should have endorsed his teaching almost or quite without qualification. The subject, however, is not thus left. Let the reader carefully consider the limitations and qualifications referred to. "I believe, therefore," he says, "that perfection is presented in the Word as an attainable state of grace, but that it consists not in a state of sinlessness, but in that entire supremacy of the Spirit of God over the living

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man which sanctifies the entire being (the italics are the author's) not wholly, as our version erroneously has it, but the whole of it, leaving no part, no, not even a secret corner of the entire soul, that is not filled by the Divine presence and consecrated to the Divine service." Sinless we shall be I believe, perfectly and for ever; but it will be in a future state." "Meanwhile we are complete in Christ." Christian perfection, as hitherto defined. and universally understood, implies the present absence of all sin, and a present "standing perfect and complete in all the will of God." As defined specifically by our Canon, "it consists in the entire dedication of the whole undivided self to

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God," NOT WHOLLY," that is, with a part of every whole that is dedicated kept back. As distinguished from the doctrine as hitherto defined and understood that of Canon Garbett to be rightly apprehended, must be denominated The Doc-: trine of Imperfect Christian Perfection. We think that the justice and propriety of the above distinction will not be questioned even by Canon Garbett himself. Upon this doctrine of Imperfect Christian Perfection as set forth by our Canon we remark:

REMARKS UPON THIS DOCTRINE.

1. The doctrine as stated by our author involves the most palpable contradiction. In the state which he describes, he tells us there is "the salvation and sanctification of the whole man, body, soul, and· spirit," "the devotion of the undivided being to God," "the whole undivided, undistracted, being surrendered to the guidance of the Holy Spirit," and all this to such an extent, that there is "no part, no, not even a secret corner of the entire soul, that is not filled by the Divine. presence and consecrated to the Divine service." All this, he teaches, may be done, and is done, while the soul is not "sanctified wholly," but remains in the continuous commission of sin. No doctrine can, by any possibility, be selfcontradictory if this is not. The same contradiction is equally palpable in our Canon's use of the term "wholly." "The whole undivided, undistracted being," he says, "is surrendered to the guidance of the Holy Spirit" with "no part, no not even a secret corner of the entire soul, that is not filled with the Divine presence

and consecrated to the Divine service." All this may and does occur, he teaches, while no part is "wholly " consecrated, or "wholly" sanctified. We have, then, a whole which does not include all its parts, or a whole which is not a whole.

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2. The error of Canon Garbett is based upon a palpable misconstruction of the words, sanctify you wholly." This, he tells us, does not mean "sanctify the entire being wholly, as our version wrongly has it, but the whole of it." The original word here rendered "wholly" is one of the strongest words in the Greek or any other language. It is made up of two words, each of which means entireness, to wit, olos all, and telos perfection. The literal and true meaning and rendering of the entire passage is undeniably, as the best lexicographers have it, this: The very God of peace sanctify you in all respects unto perfection. If the meaning is not "sanctify your entire being wholly,' no words in any language can, by any possibility, express that idea. No error in interpretation can be more obvious and undeniable than is that under consideration.

3. Our next remark is this: it would be absolutely sinful in us, granting that we have not yet attained to perfection in this form, to seek to attain it. The Scriptures absolutely prohibit sin in all its forms and degrees, and as absolutely require full and entire obedience to "ALL the will of God." For us to aim at anything short of this is sin. A standard of obedience affirmed to be below this, to wit, the dedication of all to God, but "not wholly," is the standard which this new doctrine sets before us. Suppose we should aim to "surrender our whole undivided, undistracted, being ('not wholly ') to the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God." Would God accept our offering? The aim, the intent, to make such a presentation would be an insult to our Father and God.

heaven is perfect." To suppose, as our Canon does, that the perfection thus inculcated is "that entire supremacy of the Spirit of God over the living man which sanctifies the entire being, 'not wholly,' implies that Christ inculcates and requires this partial obedience, and consequently prohibits obedience which is wholly and truly perfect and complete.' When the bible requires a specific thing, or form of obedience, it, by necessary implication, prohibits whatever is opposite to, or diverse from, that specific thing. No doctrine can be more unscriptural than that which thus imputes to our Saviour the positive inculcation of a specific moral state, or form of character and life, which has in it the element of sin. Further observations must be deferred for future consideration.

"INACTIVITY OF FAITH." -"It is," says Archbishop Leighton, "the inactivity of faith in Jesus that keeps us so imperfect and wrestling still with our corruptions, without any advancement. We wrestle in our own strength too often, and so are justly, yea, necessarily, foiled; it cannot be otherwise till we make Him our strength. This we are still forgetting, and had need to be put in mind of and ought frequently to remind ourselves— WE WOULD BE AT DOING FOR OURSELVES, and insensibly fall into this folly, even