song alway on our lips, the heart ever rejoicing in the Lord. Jesus will honour the Name given to him by His Father, and be to His people all that it implies, in response to their faith in Ilim for this very thing! And so,

Who in the strength of Jesus trusts

Is more than conqueror."

Then, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, yea by Himself, yea by the Father also, will not the mighty power of the Name be known as it is used in prayer? If ye shall ask anything in my Name I will do it," are His own gracious words and these also-"Verily, verily, I say unto you: Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, He will give it you!"

Oh for the experience, in this New Year, of the full power and blessedness indicated by this great Name! Let "JESUS!" be our watchword all through the year: our shout as we meet every temptation: our joy-note as we serve: our song as we live to Him, follow Him, and do His will with grateful devotion and loving loyalty. Yes, let it be " JESUS!"—ever, only, everywhere, and amid all circumstances, "Jesus!" -"All for Jesus!"

2. FULL CONSECRATION.

"JESUS."

(Matt. i. 21.)

JESUS! Name of matchless splendour, Name all other names above; Glorious Son of God incarnate,

King of kings and King of love.
Name that to our hearts is dearest,
Name that to our hearts is nearest.

"Call Him JESUS!" He shall save us
From the tyranny of sin;
From its condemnation save us,
From iniquity within:

Thanks we give and adoration
For this great and full salvation!

With His own right hand upholding,
Day by day, and hour by hour,
Jesus saves us-really saves us-

From its guilt and from its power:
As in Him the soul abideth,
As in Him the heart confideth!

High at God's right hand exalted,
There for us to intercede,
He-our own, our peerless Jesus-

Meeteth all the heart's deep need:
With His love our cup he filleth,
And the pulse of care He stilleth!
JESUS! Sovereign Lord and Master,
At Thy pierced feet we fall:
Friend, Exemplar and Redeemer,
Yea, our very All in all :
Naught but Thee the soul requireth,
Naught but Thee the soul desireth!

Teach us in Thy steps to follow,

More and more Thy will to know;
While our hearts in Thy sweet presence
Find it heaven begun below:
JESUS! Bow our souls before Thee,
Teach, oh teach us to adore Thee!

Brightness of the Father's glory,
Brightness of the Father's face,
Thou alone art Sun and Centre

Of Thy kingly dwelling-place:
'Tis for Thee the spirit yearneth
When to that fair Home it turneth!

We have arrived at the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Let us look first at Pre-Pentecostal times.

1. At the birth of John the Baptist," of both his parents it is said, they were filled with the Holy Ghost; Elizabeth before his birth (Luke i. 41), and Zechariah after his birth (Luke i. 67). Both were thus inspired to testify of God's love and power— the keeping of His Covenant both to Abraham and David.

This is the beginning of a great manifestation of God; and it is instructive to see that its primary purpose is to show us how the promises given centuries before were to be fulfilled. The outburst of praise from the lips of Zechariah is full of detail of the blessings about to be bestowed both on Israel and the Gentiles. It is to be observed that in the case of both Zechariah and Simeon, it is said-" He was full of the Holy Ghost" (Luke i. 67), and "He

came in the Spirit into the temple" (Luke ii. 27). Both these passages seem to be at variance with the generally-received impression that before the Pente. cost the Holy Spirit moved and acted upon the minds of the saints, but did not dwell in them. It may not be possible for us entirely to remove this apparent difficulty; but may it not be that our Lord, in His remarkable words to the disciples, when giving the promise of the Pentecost (John xiv. 17), is referring to a permanent abiding of the Spirit in all believers, which was to be secured by His sacrifice. The days of the overflowing of the Spirit were not yet, because that Jesus was not yet glorified (John vii. 39).

4. But we must not pass over the important promise given to us through the Baptist: "He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire” (Matt. iii. 11). A fire was to be kindled which should burn up all the chaff. Flashes of light had appeared from time to time-many light-bearers, too, had been raised up as witnesses for God—but the Light of the World had now appeared (John viii. 12). He baptised, and still baptises, in the Holy Ghost and fire; for this is its literal rendering and meaning. Does our Lord refer to this when He tells His disciples subsequently that "He came to cast fire on the earth" (Luke xii. 49.) Surely He does. His subsequent words show this, "What will I if it be already kindled ?"

The baptism of suffering of which He immediately speaks, straitened Him. This was the one interposing event yet to be fully accomplished, after which the baptism of fire should come. Its dividing power was then seen. The separating power of the Truth has been seen ever since in proportion to its

3. But the third manifestation of the Holy Spirit was made when our Lord entered upon His ministry, after His baptism by John. The Evangelists give us the scene much in the same terms-Matt. iii. 16, 17; Mark i. 10, 11; Luke iii. 21, 22. This mainly, during the ministry of our Lord, until the great Sacrifice was accomplished, was to be the Spirit's work-viz., to fill the Son with power to accomplish His work on earth. Not by His own power was He to speak, or walk, or do; but by that of His Father (John v. 19; xiv. 10, &c.); and the Holy Spirit was to reveal that will and power to Him all the way through. We are on holy ground, indeed, now; and well may we ever stand still to contemplate this wondrous state. The Mighty God is in the form of a Servant, and we hear and see Him speak and act in simple but entire obedience to His Father. Surely this is one of the greatest lessons we have to learn. His sacrifice was for us

His obedience was for us; but more- -it was to set us an example as to the true place of the servantviz., dependence. As He hung upon His Father's lips, and depended unceasingly upon His Father's Power, so are we to depend on Him in the same manner. Only thus can we be partakers of His life.

53); the chaff is burnt up-all that is of the flesh has to be mortified-put to death (Col. iii. 5), where the Holy Spirit dwells in His fulness. Nor is this all. Holy, burning zeal is kindled too, in the place of the false fire of nature, and Christ and His glory is supreme in the heart, and manifested in the life. These manifestations of the Holy Spirit's power are now being generally revived. The call is to the Church to arise and put on her beautiful garments of truth, holiness and praise.

5. Let us only now glance at the special promises of the Holy Spirit, given by our Lord. We notice that two titles are given to Him by our LordComforter and Spirit of Truth (John xiv. 26; xv. 26, 27; xvi. 7). Then also see what He was to do. (a) To be the Teacher and Remembrancer of our Lord's own instructions (John xiv. 26); (b) To be the Witness for Christ, and to enable His disciples to be His witnesses also (John xv. 26, 27); (c) He was to convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment; and (d) To guide the Church into all truth, to glorify Christ, and to take of the things which are His and show (impart) them to His people, onward to the end (John xvi. 8-15).

In our next paper we shall see how these promises were fulfilled.

HENRY. F. BOWKER.

of their devices, we shall thus lay ourselves open to their attacks, and become their easy and often unconscious prey.

The simple fact is, that when we are lifted up into "heavenly places in Christ," we are as the Israelites were, confronted with a new set of enemies who are peculiar to that region, and whom we could not have met with on any lower platform of experience. We are warned of this in Eph. vi. 11, 12: "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the worldrulers of this darkness, against the spiritual

hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

(Revised Version.)

Now if we enter these heavenly places thinking there are no enemies there, we shall not be

"The Enemies in the Land, or the Dangers besetting the Interior Life." By H. W. S. London: Willard Tract Reposi tory, 31, Paternoster Square.

It is essential, therefore, that we should understand who and what these enemies are, and how they will be likely to attack us.

And first of all we must remember that

they are spiritual enemies, "wicked spirits in heavenly places," and that their temptations will, of course, be fitted to deceive and delude our spiritual nature. The old carnal temptations we have largely conquered, and if we are to be overcome by our enemies now, it will have to be by subtler forms of evil, that come to us under the guise of good. Satan must appear to us transformed into an angel of light,

or we will not listen to him for a moment. He knows this, and is perfectly aware that he cannot succeed in inducing consecrated Christians to sin if it appears as sin in their eyes. Therefore he makes it appear as an extra form of righteousness, often as a righteousness beyond the Scriptures, and consequently independent of them, and thus succeeds in deceiving those who are the most devoted followers of their Lord, by means of their very devotedness.

Being spiritual enemies, of course their temptations will be presented to us in a spiritual way, that is, they will come in a form of mental

or spiritual impressions. There is, in fact, no other way in which spirit can approach spirit than by this way of interior impressions; therefore we must look for these temptations to come through this instrumentality, and must be on our guard against them. We must not "believe

every spirit," but must "try the spirits," i.e., the impressions made upon our minds, and see whether they be of God or whether from an evil source. (See 1 John iv. 1-3.) For the Holy Spirit also communicates to us by means of impressions, and just here lies the danger. The Christian who does not expect to find any enemies in the land he has entered, or who does not understand their mode of attack, will not feel it necessary to "try the spirits," but will believe that every spiritual impression made upon his mind is from God, and is to be received and obeyed as divine; especially if these impressions come, as they are apt to do, at times of peculiar nearness and communion. He argues that since he is trusting the Lord fully, and is wholly given up to Him, the Lord surely will not permit any enemies to approach him when he is so near to Himself; and therefore his very faith forces him, as he thinks, to receive as from the Lord any impression that comes, no matter how unlike the Lord it may

seem.

The trouble here is just this, that such a Christian is arguing on an altogether false basis. He believes there can no enemies enter the heavenly places in which he is abiding, when as a matter of fact it is just there his worst enemies will be found.

It is as if he should say, "I am a child of God and have committed myself entirely to His keeping, and He has promised to deliver me out of the hands of all my enemies, therefore when I go out into the street I shall believe that every person who accosts me is my friend, and is sent of God for me to believe and follow." If such a man had any enemies and they should hear of this, they would of course avail themselves of it to deceive him to his own destruction. If they wanted his money, for instance, they would approach him with suggestions as to the disposal of it, asserting of course, most emphatically, in order to chime in with the man's own ideas, that the Lord had sent them.

Now, exactly this happens in the interior life. The Christian who has entered upon it, and has started out to follow the Lord whithersoever

He may lead, not believing there can be any danger from enemies in a place of such nearness to God, thinks he is henceforth to receive impressions from the Holy Spirit alone. At once the Enemy, who is continually prowling about seeking whom he may devour, marks that man as an easy prey. He disguises himself as an angel of light, and in some moment when the soul is the most wrapt in its devotion to God, he slips in a little suggestion of evil, which he succeeds in representing as good, and which he declares comes wholly from the Lord. The soul, not being on the look-out for any enemies, believing in fact that none can be near under such circumstances, receives the suggestion, with wonder perhaps at its unlikeness to what he has heretofore known of God, but does not dare to question it, believing it to be from a divine source. And after a conflict with his knowledge of God's will and with his own higher judgment of right and wrong, he yields to the impression, driven thereto by a fear of disobedience; and is thus led, step by step, often into a life that is very far from being Christ-like or heavenly, and sometimes into open and glaring sin.

I believe that most of the grievous fanaticisms of the so-called mystics have come just in this way. With a heart honest towards God in the first instance, these misguided Christians have given themselves up to follow impressions, ignorant of the fact that evil spirits can make impressions upon their minds as well as the Holy Spirit, and prepared therefore to accept every one that comes as from God. The "principalities and powers in heavenly places" have known this, and have taken advantage of it to "lie in wait to deceive" by cunning craftiness, and the result has been that grievous delusions have been received and obeyed as the voice of God, and the soul has been carried captive simply through its ignorance of Satan's devices.

But you will say, Does not God speak, then, by interior impressions? Is there no inward voice from Him? Most assuredly there is. But all inward voices are not His, and the

mistake is in not distinguishing His voice from the deceiving voices that are seeking to make themselves heard as well.

But how can I distinguish God's voice? you will ask. I answer that God has various ways of making His will known to us, and that when He speaks there will be a harmony of His various voices. He cannot deny Himself, and command in one voice what He at the same time forbids in another. He could not, for instance, command me in the Scriptures not to steal, and at the same time command me to steal by an inward impression. And yet I know a poor deluded Christian sister, who had given herself up to follow impressions alone, who believed God had done just this very thing, and who actually took some money belonging to another, thinking she was led of Him!

These two voices, therefore, the one in the heart and the one in the Scriptures, must agree, if it is an impression made by the Holy Spirit.

And, further, the Christian's own consecrated judgment and common sense must be convinced as well. To ignore or set aside our sanctified judgment is about on a parallel with ignoring or setting aside our eyesight. It is as if a man should go out to take a walk, and should say, "God has promised to guide me, and I need not, therefore, use my eyes: in fact, it would be a want of faith to use them when I have such a divine and trustworthy Guide," and then should walk blindfold. Of course such a man would soon stumble and fall. But could he then charge God with his failure?

Now, to set aside our sanctified judgment and common sense, and refuse to listen to their dictates in our moral and spiritual walk through life, is as unreasonable and as dangerous as to set aside our eyesight in our physical walk. Our eyes were given to see with outwardly, and our judgment and common sense were given to see with inwardly; and both will be used by God as His channel of guidance, and will never by Him be set aside as useless.

There is a text which says, "The meek will He guide in judgment," and I cannot but think it means that there will not only be a wise

guidance, but that it will seem wise also to our sanctified and enlightened judgments.

These three voices, then, must agree,-the impression on our minds, the Scripture, and our own best enlightened judgment.

But there is a fourth voice also, which seldom, I think, can safely be disregarded, and that is the voice of outward providential circumstances. Our Lord has told us that when He putteth forth His own sheep He goeth before them; and this surely means that He opens the way for them to walk in, and they will not have to break down the barriers or burst open the doors for themselves.

It is

It is a safe rule, therefore, to accept nothing as coming from God that does not come with a harmony of all these four voices, i.e., the voice of the inward impression, the voice of Scripture, the voice of our highest judgment, and the voice of providential circumstances. When the impression is from an evil source, these four voices will never agree; and as a general thing Satan speaks only in one way, and that is by impressions, which impressions mostly contradict all the other three voices. true he may sometimes quote Scripture to confirm these impressions, as he did to our Lord; but we will always find that his will be isolated from their proper connection, or will require to be taken in the letter and not in the spirit. He will use the words of Scripture, but not the principles; and when the principles are brought forward the words he has used will be found vain. As was the case in the temptations of our Lord; Satan brought a text to tempt Him: He resisted by bringing a principle. Satan said, "It is written, He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." Jesus answered by a principle, " It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

In the case referred to above, when a Christian sister thought she was "led" to steal, Satan brought the words "All things are yours" as an argument; but the principles of Scripture concerning stealing, if applied, would