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The Lord said unto Joshua, "Get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned; . . . . they have even taken of the accursed thing; they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you." What does this mean? In what did their sin consist? In chapter vi. 18, we see the command given to Israel"Ye in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. But all the silver and gold and brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord, they shall come into the treasury of the Lord." And in the 17th verse, "The city shall be accursed even it and all that are therein, to the Lord." Perhaps the word "accursed" is rather an unfortunate word: the margin says "devoted," and sends us back to Lev. xxvii. 28. "Notwithstanding, no devoted thing that a man shall devote unto the Lord of all that he hath . . . . shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most truly unto the Lord." If he devotes a thing to the Lord, he has no right to sell it, or to take anything from it, to keep back any part of it; it must go, just as it is, to the Lord. Turn to Micah iv. 13. "Thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate" (literally devote) "their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth." A thing "accursed" to the Lord means, therefore, a thing consecrated or devoted to the Lord.

There were two things that they were to do when they had taken Jericho. The one was to destroy every one and every thing in the city, save what the Lord Himself had excepted; and the other was to consecrate unto the Lord all the silver and the gold, the brass and the iron. The devoted things, then, were to be divided into two parts: there was no third portion, only these two: either to be destroyed or to be put into the treasury of the Lord. You remember what took place, and how he that had troubled Israel was singled out. What had he done? Achan said unto Joshua, "Thus and thus have I done when I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold they are hid in the earth, in the midst of my tent,

and the silver under it." They ran to the tent where they found the garment, the silver, and the gold. It had all to be destroyed; they took Achan, and the silver, and the garment, and the gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them unto the valley of Achor, and they stoned them with stones, and burned them with fire, and they raised over them a great heap of stones unto this day."

Now it seems to me that this applies to us in the most definite manner. God says to us, "You are my people, you are my army, now go forth to victory. Some things that you will meet with on your way are evil, they must be utterly destroyed; other things may be used in my service; hand them over to Me."

Achan transgressed both commands. In the first place he saw a goodly Babylonish garment, which he ought to have destroyed, and he coveted it, took it, and hid it in the tent. Let each one of us search his own life, his own heart, and see whether some accursed thing, some work of the flesh, does not lie hidden there. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, hercsies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like." Let us ascertain whether there has been nothing that we have kept, that was not according to the fruit of the Spirit, namely: "Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Let each one settle the question for himself; take the pickaxe and go into the tent, and see if there is not there "hid in the earth" that which ought not to be there. If you should discover any such thing, dig it out at once and burn it; destroy it utterly.

In the second place, Achan kept a wedge of gold, and two hundred shekels of silver. He need not have destroyed these; he ought to have given them over to the Lord. Are you defrauding the Lord of any such treasures? For example, that body of yours, so fearfully and wonderfully made; that body, made to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, and which you are told to present to the Lord "a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God;" have you made it over to the Lord? Have you recognised that it altogether belongs to Him? And your gifts

This one, it may be, has made some advance in knowledge or science, another has the gift of elocution, another is an artist, another a writer, another has some other gift; but whatever it is-have you given it to the Lord? and have you said to God, “O Lord, take it all?" Perhaps you feel you have nothing valuable to give to the Lord, nothing worthy to be called gold or silver; never mind, if it be only brass and iron, give it to Him, and He can use it as well. We are told, in the Book of Ezra, of" copper, precious as gold" (Ezra viii. 27).

Let us, then, take all that belongs to us, and make of it two portions, one for destruction and one for the Lord, one for the fire and one for the sanctuary. Remember there must be no third portion. How often we have said (of books, for instance, and of other things), "This is evil, I cast it away, it must be destroyed; that is good, I consecrate it to the Lord; but this other thing is simply nice, I keep it for myself." Again, you take your money and you say, "So much for God, and so much for me." You say the same of your time. "No! it is all for God." In fact, the simplest and safest plan is to place everything— good, bad, or indifferent "-in the Lord's hands, and let Him give back to you that which He is willing to use to His glory. Be assured that He will keep from you nothing that will do you good, nothing that will make you truly happy.

Finally, observe that, in Christ, God has done for us precisely those two things that we have been speaking of. If we want what is evil to be destroyed, and what is not evil to be consecrated to God, we have but one thing to do: to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ-to attach ourselves to Him-and thus to become identified with Him. On the cross of Christ whatever is evil has received its death-blow, seeing that, in Him, our old man is crucified, and we "have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." We have not, then, to wrench and tear away from our hearts those affections and lusts, which it is utterly beyond our power to do; but rather to let Christ make an end of them on His cross, ourselves being willing, of course, both to reckon ourselves dead and practically to die with Him there. Likewise, how are all good things to be kept in their

There was another reason why they failed so miserably at Ai. You will see that Joshua received his orders from God just as much as Moses. Take chapter v. 2; vi. 2; viii. 1-then look at chapter vii. (the Ai chapter); here there is nothing said at all about the Lord giving orders to Joshua. It is simply: "Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai." And what comes next? Shameful defeat. Ah! he had not taken counsel of the Commander of the Host that time, because he thought the path was simple enough and easy enough. And so we, when we have Jericho to storm, we take counsel with the Lord; but when the path is an easier one we think we know all about it, and we simply do what appears to us sensible and right; thus we learn many a sad lesson: but when we have learned it, don't let us go on making the same mistake. While we rejoice in the beautiful promise, "I will guide thee with mine eye," let us not forget the corresponding duty and privilege, "Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord."

We have met in this Convention to consecrate ourselves afresh, or, it may be, for the first time, to God. That is simply to cease to rob Him of His own. Let us do it sincerely and thoroughly, remembering that if we keep for ourselves either the Babylonish garment or the wedge of gold, we not only make ourselves accursed, but we "make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it" (Josh. vi. 18).

WEDNESDAY.

We regret we have no report of the Bible Reading given on this day by the Rev. H. Webb-Peploe.

THURSDAY.

GILGAL AND BETHEL.

(2 Kings ii.)

BY REV. HUBERT BROOKE.

Our opening prayer this morning referred to the service of God's people; and in order to render service we must ourselves be full. We have come here to be filled with that fulness, that we may go

out to serve in other places. Like as a vessel, laden in the harbour with precious goods, is not laden merely that it may be full, but that it may carry those goods to other lands, and return, bringing back other things in exchange; so should we go forth from this Convention, filled with riches and supplies for others, and then return to Him who sent us, that at His coming He may receive His own with interest. We must have Power for this service In the chapter just read, you see the pathway of power. When it begins Elisha is merely the servant of a prophet, he "poured water on the hands of Elijah" (2 Kings iii. 11); but at its close he is a prophet greater than Elijah.

There must be some meaning, then, in this journey, some lesson to tell us how this power is gained. And as we look at it, we notice first that it is a simple circuit, starting from and returning to Gilgal; and, secondly, that each of the four places. named was the scene where God had done great things for His people; two receiving a name to commemorate the fact.

There is a secret in this journey that we need to know how we may return from this Convention as servants endued with new power. The promise is ours, why do we not possess it? "He that believeth on Me," saith Jesus, "the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to My Father."

As they "went on and talked," doubtless they would speak of the places they came to, and what God had done there in times past. They would remind each other of all that had happened, and of the promises given to His people by the Lord at each of them in turn.

I. They started from Gilgal (ver. 1), and would talk of the mighty works done there of old. Josh. iv. 19. Here Israel encamped on the day they crossed over Jordan. Remember how they had crossed. The Ark of the Lord went first, and stood still in the river until all had passed over on dry ground. Twelve stones from the wilderness were left there where the priests' feet first stood (ver. 9), and twelve stones were brought out of the river, and pitched in Gilgal as a memorial of that day's work (vers. 6, 8, 20, 21). Thus was Gilgal marked as the place where the old life of the flesh was left behind, and the new life of the Spirit began.

Josh. v. 9. Gilgal was also the place where the reproach of Egypt was rolled away for ever. Egypt

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was the market for chariots and horses (2 Chron. i. 17). At Gilgal first did Israel proclaim, trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God” (Ps. xx. 9). By the act that day performed, they signified that they had rolled off their confidence in earthly power, and went forth to trust in the Lord alone. They left behind their former confidence. There was thenceforth nothing worth having confidence in, but the name of the Lord. They went forth to trust in Him alone. It was at Gilgal, therefore, that the old life died, and the new life began.

Josh. v. 13-15. It was also at Gilgal that Joshua saw the Captain of the Lord's Host, who is never known as Captain till we have given up resting in any strength but His. When we, too, having left behind all confidence in the flesh, go forth to trust Him alone, then shall we know him as Captain.

And it was at Gilgal, that Joshua had his encampment, and from there he started to do any work he had to do: v. 10; compare x. 6. Joshua went up to fight from Gilgal. It was his starting-place for service. And our only safe starting-point and place of service is Gilgal. "No confidence in the flesh." We start from the lowest place, and fight upwards. The Lord's battles are always fought uphill. That is not the world's way of fighting. The world goes up to the top of the hill, and sweeps down on its enemies from there. But in the Lord's battles Jonathan is the true example. He can say to his armour-bearer, from the foot of the hill, which was crowned by the Philistines, 66 Come up after me, for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand of Israel." Israel."" And He wrought with God that day— a great salvation" (1 Sam. xiv. 12, 45).

Josh. x. 43. Gilgal, once more, was Joshua's resting and abiding-place, whither he returned after victory. We need to make it so for ourselves. Every day we must start from and come back to Gilgal. "No confidence in the flesh," to begin with; "we are unprofitable servants" to close the day. Joshua once failed to return to Gilgal. Flushed with victory, and confident in himself he went up to Ai. The result was total defeat and failure. Have we not so failed? Failing to come back humbly at the day's close, or as the service ended, we have stayed a while in self-complacency, and returned to pride ourselves on the work completed. We have been uplifted, as though the glory was in the messenger, the vessel, and not in the

chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof." And he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in pieces. He left the old garments behind. Let us leave the old garments of the flesh and self behind or ever, and be girded with a mantle from on high. He took the mantle of Elijah and smote the waters. Notice clearly that he felt no special power, no wonderful sensation. "He believed to see." He felt nothing, for he cried, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" and the waters divided as they had done before." He had fainted but that he believed to sce." That is Elisha's word to us to-day. We may go back from this place and meet with some personal difficulty. Let us meet it as Elisha did:

"Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" He was believed in, He was called upon, and He showed Ilimself. The waters were parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over on dry ground. Now whither did Elisha go? He went back to the old places, a new man. Just where we are going from this Convention. What sort of places were they? Very like where we are going. To what ought to have been the Lord's land, but they had raised up altars to false gods. To Jericho, whose very existence was a monument of defiance of the curse of God (Josh. vi. 26; 1 Kings xvi. 34). And we are going back into the world that knows not God, the world that lives in defiance of the curse of God. God had said Jericho should never be rebuilt, and had cursed the man that should attempt to raise it up, and the curse was fulfilled in the death of the sons of the man that dared to defy God. And God has said of the sinful world, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." But the world cares not for the curse of God, and goes on in its life as though there were no God. Yes, we are going into the midst of that world. He went back to Bethel. Bethel, where God had said, “I am with thee," and there was a golden calf at Bethel ! Worse there than anywhere else. And we, too, go back to Bethel. To a so-called Christian world, which ought to be the "house of God," but where each worships the idols of his heart. We go back as those that have been at Gilgal, "No confidence in the flesh;" and at Bethel, where we found "God is with us;" and at Jericho, where we learned the power of His Presence; and at Jordan, where we proved the Power of His Presence. back to prove His power in the world. we prove His power outside, we must

power over enemies inside. You must prove the Lord for the hindrance in your own soul. Prove Him these two days that yet remain here; how He can lead you right through the waters on dry ground. Then you will go back in the power of the Spirit. He went back to Jericho, and we go back to Jericho; where the situation is pleasant but the water is naught, and the ground barren. Where they have hewed broken cisterns that can hold no water. What will Elisha do there? "Bring a new cruse." Just what you must bring. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me!" "And put salt in "—" Ye are the salt of the earth,"-"so the waters were healed." And God will use you to bring healing where you come, and those around will be revived. Then God sent him on to Bethel, the place where those " young *men" came out from the city to mock him. He cursed them in the name of the Lord. Elisha in doing so only prayed for the fulfilment of God's solemn promise of vengeance in Lev. xxvi. 21-22-"If ye walk contrary unto Me I will also send wild beasts among you which And God heard shall rob you of your children." she-bears out of the wood and tare forty and two." him and fulfilled it; "and there came forth two And God may call us not only to be a blessing to others, but also to "reprove the unfruitful works of darkness" (Eph. v. 2). And we must do it, whatever be the cost. But we must reprove as those to learn how to reprove. We must dwell at Gilgal, who come from Gilgal. We must go back to Gilgal and work from Gilgal, and reprove from Gilgal "No confidence in the flesh"-"I am with you always." The Lord lead us on that journey, and keep us in that resting place.

FRIDAY.

The Rev. HUBERT BROOKE'S Bible Reading on the "River of God" is omitted for lack of space, but we hope to publish it in our next number.-ED.

TESTIMONIES.