shall all families of the earth be blessed." Abraham "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, understood this doctrine, as we see by chap. xv.- and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise "Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceed- thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (ver. 15). ing great reward." But Abraham wanted to be There is the blessing in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ; blessed by being made fruitful. It was as if he there is the possibility for us to be cursed because had said, "If Thou wilt not make me fruitful, do He was, in the eyes of God, hanging on the cross not speak to me of shield and reward." before the foundation of the world. Let us here remember one central word of revelation: “Of His | fulness have all we received, and grace for grace; for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John i. 16, 17). The law was a barren dispensation, but grace is a dispensation of fruitfulness. The dispensation of the law must reveal to man his fallen state-how he was separated from God. What a monstrous thing to think that you can bear fruit unto God separated from Him! There is only one eternal Fountain of Life—that is, God. Let us go back to creation, higher than Abraham. You will see on the first page of revelation what God did and what He intended in the creating of man. As soon as the earth was prepared, God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind" (Gen. i. 11). Then when the living creature comes you find God first creating and then blessing. What do we understand by blessing? "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth" (i. 22). As with the beasts, so far more with man. God created man (ver. 27); God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (ver. 28). The only meaning of blessing was to be fruitful. Now comes again the question of yesterday: "How to appropriate the blessing"-how to get into the glorious position out of the fallen state-still fallen creatures, but redeemed; So that God is able to manifest Himself through man, who hath been created for God. For the end of redemption is to bring fallen man into such a position that God will be able to reveal Himself through man. In the universe there is no creature through which God can manifest Himself so fully as through fallen man redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Paul says he knows nothing save Christ, and will know nothing save Christ; he immediately adds "Christ crucified." I have only one desire this morning in my heart, and that is to bring you to, and to bring before you, the Lamb slain for the sins of the world. There, in the death of Christ, has been taken away the curse, which has never been pronounced on humanity, because Christ was before God as the Lamb slain from the beginning for the sins of the world. In the death of Christ is the secret of life. Out of the death of Christ flows all blessing. There is the secret of all fruitfulness. Let us go back once more to the first pages of revelation. We heard yesterday that the ground has been cursed (Gen. iii. 17), and the serpent has been curse (ver. 14), but not man, because there in the beginning God saw before Him the Lamb slain. Now let us take the two great ministers of the old covenant-Moses, through whom the law came, and Elias, the restorer of the law. These two great men were faithful in what had been committed unto them as servants of the house; but they were not the Son. Some days before the death of Christ we see these two men upon a high mountain with Christ. While the disciples were busy looking, not knowing what they saw, these two men knew what it meant. They were speaking with Christ; and of what were they speaking? Of His death. They were looking to see the dispensation of which they had been ministers come to an end. There was Moses, whose tomb had never been known, and there was Elias who was taken up to heaven; they came back to earth again because of their longing to see Christ finish the old dispensation. They spoke to Him of His death. Then there was John the Baptist, the greatest prophet of all. When he saw that his ministry was ending, he was full of divine joy, because he saw the Lamb slain for the sins of the world walking along by the waters of Jordan. He knew that he himself was no more necessary when the Lamb of God was come. So the servants of Christ on this platform have only one ambition-that the time may come when the youngest and the oldest shall all know the Lord, so that no one any more needs to be told by his brother, because the Holy Ghost is teaching us all, taking of what is Christ's, and giving to us life and light-all that we want. And now, let us go to Christ Himself. Moses be at his disposal, to be used by Him and for Him. and Elias were not satisfied with the incarnation. that those members of our body should henceforth Humanity could do nothing with this incarnationI speak reverently-so long as the Lamb was not slain. There He walked-the Lamb of God, the fulness of the Godhead,—all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge in Him, and like sunbeams flowing forth. But His true life was shut up in Him till He was broken down. Let us take His own words. Certain men desired to see His glory (John xii. 21). Then said Jesus, "The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. . . . Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit" (ver. 23, 24). In the beginning of the chapter we read of that wonderful alabaster box brought by the beloved woman to anoint Christ for the burial. This is the Alabaster Box-Christ Himself. His body was the Alabaster Box, full of the precious ointment of life; but it must be broken before the odour can fill the house. He became an Alabaster Box, and it was broken in His death. This afternoon we will proclaim the death of Christ by our gathering in one company around His table. He became an Alabaster Box, that we might all become alabaster boxes. After the creation men became blessed and fruitful. So in the new creation, through the Holy Ghost, we can only be fruitful through our oneness with Him who was the Alabaster Box broken for us. We have been crucified with Him that our life may flow forth through the Church, and through the world, no more kept back by the flesh and by self. Immediately after this He saith, "He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve Me, let him follow Me" (John xii. 25, 26). How? "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me" (ver. 32), to the fellowship of My death and My burial, and so to the fellowship of My power, My resurrection life. If we would become fruitful it must be through the death of Christ; that is the secret of fruitfulness. He came in the flesh, that in His flesh He might break the resistance that the flesh had opposed to the law of God. The bodily organs of man were the seat and centre of sin-as, for instance, the stomach is the organ of sin to the drinking man and so forth. So God asked the Son if He would take to Himself a human body. He prepared and gave Him a body, that through the offering of it He might endure the curse of sin, so And so far, my brethren, as you understand the meaning of the death of Christ in that sense (see Rom. vi., 2 Cor. v., Gal. ii., and other passages), you will realise freedom from self in oneness with Him. He has identified Himself with my sin, and so far as, through faith, I identify myself with Him in His death, I am one with Him--I am dead, crucified to sin and to self. I have in Christ, realising by faith my union with Him, the fruits of redemption. You find in Rom. viii. it is through the flesh of Christ that sin is condemned, "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (ver. 4). In Heb. x. 16 you find the conditions of the new covenant: "I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;" it is through the flesh of Jesus Christ (ver. 20). The Holy Ghost has freedom of movement and of action only through the death of Christ. As Christ offered Himself through the eternal Spirit, so that eternal Spirit, the Holy Ghost, can reveal His grace and establish in us the new covenant only through the revelation of that new and living Way consecrated for us, that is, the flesh of Jesus. In 2 Tim. i. 7 we are told that "God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind." In the calling of Ezekiel the prophet, you find that he must first be brought under the power of the glory of God. Then only could God bring him into the presence of a rebellious race. So we need to be brought under the power of the Cross, the glory of the New Testament, to be able to go into the presence of rebellious Christians, and much more into the presence of rebellious sinners. Only when we are brought down to the dust, before the glory of the Lord, can we stand against the devil, against the principalities and powers, against the rebellious ones who will not believe because they have been blinded by the devil and cannot see the meaning of the death of Christ. There are children of God who are still living under the old covenant; the law of God is not written in their hearts and in their minds; they are not free through the power of the Holy Ghost, because they do not permit the Holy Ghost to have His way. And the way of the Holy Ghost is to bring to the Cross, to the blood of Jesus Christ, into union with the death and resurrection of the Saviour. Then, like Ezekiel, you will be able to speak to a rebellious race; and at the same time you will have the spirit, not of cowardice, but of power and of a sound mind. As the Lord shut or opened the mouth of His prophet according to His mind, so you will be free to serve the Master, to resist the flesh and the devil, to have the mouth opened to testify, or to be silent in a corner, happy to be nothing till the Lord has opened the door of service through prayer. Never angry against the brethren because they do not receive you; never impatient; only desiring to be used of God, where He will and when He will; prepared like Mary, to sit at the feet of Jesus, or like Martha, for service. The secret of service and of silence is Calvary. The only place in the world where I can be sheltered against my own self and my own heart is the wounds of Jesus. I will never glory in anything but the Cross of Christ. There I see all the past submerged under the blood of Jesus, and there, by the Holy Ghost, I am taught to be fruitful, to work in the way and in the measure in which He will, according to His own mind and Spirit. And now, my brethren, through the Continent, and in England, and over the sea, there is only one people—a redeemed people-redeemed by His death, and made ready to serve Him, and to show forth His glory. Blessed be the Lamb slain for the sins of the world. Amen. THERE is a sort of God's dear servants who walk in perfectness: who perfect holiness in the fear of God; and they have a degree of charity and divine knowledge more than we can discourse of, and more certain than the demonstrations of geometry. But I shall say no more of this at this time; and they who never touched it with their fingers may secretly perhaps laugh at it in their hearts and be never the wiser. All that I shall now say of it is that a good man is united unto God. As a flame touches a flame and combines into splendour and glory, so is the spirit of a man united unto Christ by the spirit of God. These are the friends of God and they best know God's mind; and they only that are so know how much such men do know.-Jeremy Taylor. It was a sultry day in July, and the children were more than usually restless; Dick was looking at the pictures in the Bible, and Nellie and little May were gazing out of the window. "Oh, dear!" sighed May, "what a tiring day Sunday is; I do get tired of doing nothing; I like the singing at church, but I can't understand Mr. Leigh when he talks, and I do think we ought to have some pleasure. I wish mother would tell us a fairy tale." 'Yes, so do I," said Nellie; "I've read all the nice parts of the Bible through till I'm tired of it; I wish some one would make a children's Bible." "I tell you what," broke in Dick; "you girls are saying very wicked things. If mother heard you she would" "What would mother do, my boy?" said Mrs. Hilton's voice behind him. "Why, mother, they are wanting fairy tales on Sunday, and Nellie says she's tired of the Bible," said Dick. "Truly I am, mother," said Nellie; "it's just the same all over again." "The wisest man in the world felt a little as you do, but he was not the best man. He said, 'There is no new thing under the sun;' but one, whose heart was full of love to God, was glad of just that thing; he said, and rejoiced in saying it; "Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Now I want you and Nellie, Dick, to tell me who May can come with me; and these two men were. then in about half an hour take your Bibles, and come to me in the summer-house." "Oh, mamma, and will you tell us a tale?" said May, eagerly. "Not just such a fairy tale as you have on other days, but I hope one that will interest you quite as much," said her mother, smiling at the look of wonder on her face. Mrs. Hilton had been ill for a long time, and had been obliged to leave the children to the care of servants; now that she was stronger, and could more interest herself in their little joys and sorrows, she found how neglected their minds once were. "Well, my darlings, have you found the names of the men who spoke those words?" said their mother, as the children clustered round her. "Solomon was the wisest man, mother, so I looked all through Proverbs, and at last I found it in Ecclesiastes; but we could not find the other," said Dick. was there, as He said; 'The Master has come, and calleth for thee'" (John xii. 28). "But how shall I know," said poor little Zina, with a fresh burst of grief," how shall I know how to find the messages? Thou hast always read and explained to me the words upon thy lamp." "Zina, my precious little one," said her grand "Turn to Hebrews xiii. 8, and you will find the mother, still more faintly, "I leave thee in my words. Can you tell me who wrote them?" "No, mother," answered Nellie; "I thought the Epistles were for grown up people; I never read there." "Well, dear, I am sure if we read the Bible together, and ask God to help us by His Spirit to understand it, we shall find all parts interesting; and for this reason I want to have you every Sunday afternoon that we may study together." "Oh, mother," exclaimed May, "I did think you were going to tell us a fairy tale." Mrs. Hilton smiled; then taking up a paper from the table, said, "I think you will find this quite as interesting, dear ;" and commenced as follows: ZINA AND HER LAMP. The sun was shining brightly, and the birds singing among the leafy boughs were unusually lively; the flowers scented the air, and all nature seemed in a joyous mood. But though all these things usually attracted Zina's attention, this morning she thought of nothing but her grandmother, who sat exhausted by the side of the bank. "Zina," said she, "Zina, my child, this morning early, when thou wast sleeping, I saw beside me one of the King's messengers. 'My name is Emalcuel,' he said, 'and my message is to thee; and the message thou wilt find upon thy lamp.'" Say not that thou wilt leave me," cried Zina, in an agony of grief, "I cannot walk alone; thou hast always led me in the way that I should go, and therefore have I been preserved from all evil. The roaring lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. v. 8), who came so near me on the day when I ate the fruit which thou hadst forbidden -I shall have nothing to drive him away with, and oh, I cannot be left alone." | King's hands. This only I beg thee to remember, thy lamp is thy greatest treasure-walk in the path upon which its light shines, and if only thou dost look earnestly enough, thou wilt find thy message " (Deut. iv. 29). The birds sang on; the flowers held up their heads to the sun, until he became gradually lost to sight behind the western hills, and the crimson glow faded away. Then came the King's messenger again; and Zina, bending over her aged grandmother, heard her whisper, "I am ready, O Emalcuel;" and then, as she closed her eyes, "I shall see the King in His beauty." Zina threw herself forward, and cried, "Oh take me too, Emalcuel; has not the King children in His palace?" Emalcuel shook his head, and with a sweet smile -sorrowful for her sorrow, and yet radiant with joyful trust in his King-he pointed to the lamp Zina then held in her hands, and faded from her sight. Zina looked down upon it, but there was no message for her on its broad rim. She pressed it close to her heart because it had been her grandmother's, and soon forgot all her troubles in sleep. When she awoke in the early morning and found herself quite alone, sorrow seemed again about to overcome her; but with the sorrow came a thrill of pleasure in the novelty of her position. "I will take that pleasant road," said she to herself, "under those shady trees." But to her surprise, though she saw no one, she heard some one singing: "There is a way that seemeth right (Prov. xvi. 25), And the flowers fade at the wind's cold breath." Zina looked at her lamp, and thought she saw a tiny spark of light, but it pointed in the direction of a rough, stony road. And while she hesitated about taking that for her path, she heard another have not harmed thee, wherefore hast thou set a voice singing:— "Come away, oh come away, Spend the time in feast and play. You are welcome to our bowers; For the end that cometh what care we ?" And then Zina saw, on the road she first wished to walk, a number of gaily-dressed girls of her own age, who looked contemptuously upon the quiet dress she wore, and they sang again "Gaily we dance in our youth and our beauty, snare for me?" (Ps. cix. 110.) But, with a scornful laugh, they turned from her, and she hid her face and wept. At last she thought of her lamp, but how could that help her? Beside, it was beyond her reach; so she lay during the long dark night that soon came on; and she heard the howling of the wild beasts, but they did not harm her, for she cried to the King in her distress (Ps. cvii. 6); and He sent Emalcuel to loosen the cords from her right arm. She then regained her lamp, and with its flame burned away the cords that bound her, and she found that her cords were fine links coiled together (Song of Sol. ii. 15). Zina found the way more pleasant then, and by the bright light her lamp showed, she thought the But a sweeter voice thrilled Zina's heart, and caused King must be pleased with her. While she thought her to turn from them, "All earth's pleasures fade away, 'Take up thy cross and follow Me.'" Zina looked eagerly at her lamp; was that message there for her? Yes; there she read it distinctly on the shining rim of her lamp-"If any man will follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." (Matt. xvi. 24.) And under these words, "I love them that love Me, and those who seek Me early shall find Me." of these things her lamp grew dull, but she noticed "And some shall fall to try them, To purify them in His sight" (Daniel xi. 35). When these words came again to Zina's mind, she stretched out her hand that she might find her lamp, and when it came to her touch, she earnestly tried to fan the still smoking wick into a flame; and she "It is the King who sends this message; so He cried aloud to the King, "For the sake of Thy great loves me," thought little Zina. love, oh my King, send me help." Before the light revived she felt near her an Unseen Presence, and a voice, sweeter than any she had ever heard, whispered in her ear- "If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it" (John xiv. 14). But which road should she take? Her lamp could show her the road, but she must herself decide whether to take it or not. Then she heard a voice again— "This is the road which wisdom takes, And with a great joy thrilling her heart she whispered, "Abide with me, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent" (Luke xxiv. 29). Her ways are ways of pleasantness, And all her paths are peace" (Prov. iii. 17). Then the unseen Presence was ever with her, and So she followed where the light of her lamp led; kept her from all danger, until at last Emalcuel but she had lost time while hesitating, and the piece came again, and with a loving smile upon his face of the road on which she must walk had no shade pointed to her lamp, and showed Zina these words: from the burning sun. The heat tired her so much" Behold, I come quickly" (Rev. xxii. 12). And that on reaching a clump of trees she fell asleep, and she answered, "Even so, come Lord Jesus" (Rev. woke suddenly to find herself unable to move, and xxii. 20). there, just out of her reach, were some of the girls she had seen in the morning. "Come to me, and set me free," cried Zina. "What a pretty name Zina is, mother," said "I May. |