make prior obedience the express condition of the reception of "the Comforter," and does not the Bible as expressly teach that God "gives the Holy Ghost to them that obey Him"? Does not inspiration speak expressly of two classes of converted persons,—of the one class as "spiritual," and the other as "yet carnal,"-the one as made, and the other as not yet made, "perfect in love,”the one as having, and the other as not having, " fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ,—the one as having received, and the other as not having received, the Holy Ghost since they believed—and of the "joy" of the one class as being, and of the other as not being, “full”? Still the reply is, "All believers do receive 'the baptism of the Holy Ghost' at the time of their conversion, and no such promise as you speak of is in reserve for us.” Thus individuals plead and argue for their blindness, and darkness, and feebleness, their bondage under the law of sin and death, and their barrenness of spiritual joy and power, as if they were certain that "life eternal" is to be found in these things and nowhere else. How can they find the light of life when they thus turn away from God's "exceeding great and precious promises," and will not accept the testimony of God, on the one hand, and that of those who have believed, and "have entered into rest," on the other?

CHAPTER XVI.

THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT, AND THE FLESH AND

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THE SPIRIT.

THE sacred writers speak of "the letter and the Spirit" on the one hand, and of "the flesh and the Spirit" on the other. Paul, affirming himself and associates to have been made by God Himself "able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit," says that "the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." On the distinction between the flesh and the Spirit" our Saviour thus speaks: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." Let us see if we cannot understand this great subject. Our Saviour, having spoken of Himself in distinction from natural food, flesh, and from the manna, "the living bread which came down from heaven," told the people that that bread was His "flesh, which He would give for the life of the world." When the Jews strove among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat"? Jesus assured them that they "must eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood," or they could "have no life in them." At such utterances even some of His disciples took offence, they, in common with other Jews, understanding His words in their literal sense. Christ now informs His disciples that soon He should "ascend up where He was before," and where, con

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sequently, they could not approach His body; that could they do this, and even in the literal or fleshly sense, “eat His flesh and drink His blood," they would thus receive from Him no profit at all; that the words which He had employed symbolised a great and all-vitalising spiritual truth, a fixed relation which must obtain between Him personally and their spirits, or "they could have no life in them;" and that when, and only when, they should apprehend and believe in Him in that relation, would they understand the real import of the words He had employed. He Himself was to their spirits what food was to their bodies. When they should apprehend and know Him in this relation, they would receive eternal life through Him, just as their natural lives were sustained by the food which they ate. As symbolising this all-vitalising relation, “His words were spirit, and they were life." As, in the literal sense, "eating His flesh and drinking His blood" would "profit them nothing," so His words, not understood and received in their true spiritual import, would be of no benefit to them. The immutable condition of our knowing Christ in this all-vitalising relation is, as our Saviour affirms in this connection, that we are "taught of God," that is, by the Spirit of God, and thus "drawn to Him by the Father." This knowledge we can by no possibility receive but through the illumination of the Spirit in His special office as the promised Comforter.

The same distinction the apostle Paul represents by the terms "letter" and "spirit." When we apprehend the real meaning of the language of Scripture, we are in "the letter." When we have a direct, immediate, and all-transforming apprehension of the realities symbolised by that language, then we are in "the Spirit." While we are in "the letter," truth is to us as "a dead letter," and exerts very little, and

commonly no vitalising power at all. When in "the Spirit," every truth apprehended has a life-imparting power over our whole moral and spiritual nature. "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." Here again we apprehend the special functions of the Comforter. "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Such is the revealed distinction between "the flesh and the Spirit" on the one hand, and "the letter and the Spirit" on the other.

In illustration of the above distinctions, permit me to adduce a fact which occurred in my own family. When my elder children were small about me, and when I had begun to experience the life-imparting power of an apprehension of "the glory of the Lord" upon my own inner life, I made this a specific and special object of prayer, that I might be enabled to get the character of Christ before the minds of my children, so that, as the beauty, and grace, and perfection of the Lord should take form in their apprehensions, their spirit, and character, and life should be drawn and moulded into conformity to His. After I had been praying thus for some time, I found myself in our family circle, at the time of evening prayer, in circumstances most favourable to the end for which I had been praying. I accordingly remarked to my children, that I would read and talk to them about Jesus Christ, and particularly of His love to children. As I began to read the wonderful account pertaining to this subject, our little son, just upwards of three years of age, came to me, and putting his elbows upon my knee, looked me intently in the face. As I read on, and commented upon what I read, "Oh!" he exclaimed,

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while the most affectionate wonder sat upon his counte nance. Such exclamations were repeated as every new feature of Christ's character lifted its divine form before that child's mind. Perceiving that I was beginning to receive what I had been praying for, I remarked, that the next evening we would read and talk again about the dear Jesus. On this occasion our little son was at my knee as before, and listened with the same expressions of wonder and surprise. From that time onward for a long period, these apprehensions of Christ remained, and visibly moulded his whole moral being. Often would he come into my study, and say to me, "Pa, won't you talk to me about the dear Jesus?" As I would speak to him upon the subject, "Oh!" he would exclaim. As I would tell him how happy it made me to think about Christ, "It makes me happy too," he would reply. When I think of the wonderful death of that son, I have, to account for the fact, to go back to the events in his childhood-life above presented. I spoke formerly of the peaceful death of a daughter At her funeral, her pastor remarked, that he had never in his life received such benefit in visiting a sick-room as he had in visiting that of that young woman. The reason was, that she had known, not about Christ, but Christ Himself as her life. How did these dear ones thus know Christ? Because "the Spirit took of the things of Christ and showed them unto them." Communications from my home in my own country have just brought me intelligence of the death of another beloved daughter. She also "died in the Lord," and when I would account for the manner of her death, I must refer back to the knowledge of Christ which she received when a little child.

To show how early spiritual discernment may arise in the minds of the very young, I will refer to a single fact